


Unravelled

by Catsafari



Category: Neko no Ongaeshi | The Cat Returns
Genre: F/M, Rapunzel AU, Tangled AU, fairytale AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-01
Updated: 2021-01-28
Packaged: 2021-03-06 00:35:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 15
Words: 38,934
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25644403
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Catsafari/pseuds/Catsafari
Summary: Haru has lived in her tower all her life. Baron has been on the run for most of his. A stolen crown and a twist of fate brings them together to unravel the secrets of the tangled tale that binds them. This is exactly what it sounds like. Tangled AU.
Relationships: Baron Humbert von Gikkingen/Yoshioka Haru
Comments: 24
Kudos: 43





	1. Prologue: Daughter, Lost

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: Hello, folks! It's been a while since I last posted a non-TBF multichaptered fic, but this is one that has been on my to-write list for a long, long time. Several years ago, I joked about a Tangled AU, which immediately garnered a life of its own and now, finally, I have a completed(ish) fic :) It's only a short prologue today, but the regular weekly updating will commence next Saturday. 
> 
> Enjoy!
> 
> Cat

Once upon a time, there was a magic flower.

It had the ability to heal the sick and injured, and it grew only in the Cat Kingdom, sustained by the eternal noon sunshine of the world. And, like any precious thing, it was jealously guarded.

Hidden away in the palace, the Cat King kept the flower to himself, using its power to grant him youth and immortality, so that while the years wore on for those around him, he did not age. Eventually, though, even the best-kept secrets linger on loose lips, and the tale of the flower with magical healing powers reached the ear of a human king.

The King's wife was fatally ill and so, with the help of a palace cat, he stole into the Cat Kingdom and took the flower. When the Cat King discovered this, he was furious. He raged and refused to let the King return to his world.

"Your Majesty," the human king pleaded, "I do this not to harm you, but my wife is sick and with child, and both will die unless I bring this flower back."

Now, the Cat King was clever, of a sorts, after all his years, and he saw an opportunity. Having been cut, the flower would yield only a single drop of power before it ran dry and so, even if he regained the blossom, it would be of little use to him.

"With child, you say?" the Cat King asked. "In that case, you may borrow the flower and heal your wife. I also was a father once–" until old age had claimed his son long before it even glimpsed the father "–so I will offer you this kindness. Heal your wife. Return the flower. That is the deal."

"That is the deal," the human king agreed, and he returned to his own kingdom.

As promised, the flower indeed healed the Queen, and she gave birth to a beautiful baby girl who they named Haru, for she was like the first breath of spring after a bitter winter.

And, just for a moment, everything was perfect.

Until the Cat King arrived.

He appeared before the King and Queen and recited the deal the King had struck, but became once again enraged when he was given the dead remains of the blossom. "This was not the deal!" he roared.

"We returned the flower," the King said. "That is what we agreed."

"This is not the flower," the Cat King retorted. "This is a dead thing, its magic gone." He pointed to the royal babe the Queen cradled. " _That_ is the flower."

"Impossible," the King said.

"Look at its hair – as golden as the flower you took, and bearing the same magic too. Let me show you." Before either human monarch could intercede, the Cat King approached the child and, taking the golden locks in his paws, recited the same song that had unlocked the flower's abilities. Even as the humans watched, bright sunset light filled the air and chased away the flickering strands of grey in the cat's fur that had appeared in the previous months. "She is the flower," the Cat King reiterated, "and I will take the flower back. That was the deal."

"Then we shall make another deal," the Queen said.

"I want nothing else."

"Then we shall play for it," the Queen pressed, for she knew the fae-like nature of the Cat Kingdom, and all fae loved to play. "A challenge. A game."

The Cat King's eyes lit up. "A game," he agreed. "Very well. Guess my name within three nights, and you shall keep the flower. Fail, and it is mine. That is the deal."

"That is the deal," the Queen echoed. For how hard could it be to guess the Cat King's name?

One night passed. Their names fell short.

Two nights passed. Still the Cat King went unnamed.

As the third night reared its head, the King tried in desperation to separate the baby from the bloom, and took a blade to his daughter's hair. But he only removed a single lock before the magic backfired onto him, a dark, potent thing, and it tore the room to ribbons. When the dust had settled, the King was gone and only the babe remained, unharmed. 

Grief-stricken at the loss of her husband, the Queen did not see the lady-in-waiting take her magic-born child with hair of healing and health, and steal off into the night. It was only when the Cat King arrived to finish the deal that the kidnapping was realised, but by then it was too late. The princess and lady-in-waiting were gone.

For the third time, the Cat King raged, but this time his anger could change nothing. The Queen had not acted against him – the deal not broken, but delayed – and thus there was nothing the Cat King could do, but search for the missing babe.

And so, as the years passed, hope for the princess' return dwindled and the kingdom moved out of mourning. Only the lanterns that were released into the sky once a year served to remind the people of what had been lost and what, perhaps, would one day be found.


	2. Once Upon A Time (Again)

Once upon a time, there was a princess in a tower.

It wasn't much of a remarkable tower. It was tall and spindly, built of grey bricks and faded blue tiles with scattering bouts of climbing ivy clinging to the circular walls. In fact, it was kind of pretty, in an eerie sort of way.

The only real thing of note was the lack of a door.

There were, however, plenty of windows in the tower's upper quarter. And, as the day was dawning, one such window was flung open by one of the tower's few residents.

"Rise and shine, Haru!"

The window's boards were thrown open by a blonde woman of indistinguishable age and incurable enthusiasm. She leant happily out into the early sunlight and inhaled the fresh morning air. "And isn't it just wonderful?" she sighed. "Haru?" She turned and gave another sigh; this one a long-suffering sound. "Oh, Haru…"

Across the room, a form beneath the bedcovers stirred. There was a groan, and the bedsheets were pulled further over the pillows, hiding everything except the unnaturally long hair that snaked across the bedroom floor. It curled around the bed and zig-zagged from window to desk, marking the progress its owner had made before turning in the night before.

The woman took a seat at the end of the bed and playfully prodded at the lump beneath the bedcovers. "Haru…"

"Five more minutes, Mother…"

"Come on. You're missing the best part of the day!" The woman chuckled and walked her fingers to Haru's shoulder and round behind her ear. "It's a beautiful morning out there, Haru."

"So paint me a picture and let me sleep…" Haru curled up tighter inside her bedsheet cocoon.

"You'd sleep all day if I let you. Come on; if you get up now I'll fry egg for breakfast," her mother offered. "I'll even throw in the last of the bacon."

There was the sound of movement from within the bed – or, rather, beneath it – and Haru abruptly sat up with a cry. "Wait, no! I'm up! I'm up!" She paused long enough to register that she had just slammed her bedcovers into her mother's face, and a guilty giggle crept through her as she gingerly tugged the sheets off. "Whoops. My bad."

Her mother laughed gently and pulled the sheets away. "Don't worry, my dear. You just stay there and I'll bring it up to you. After all, we need to discuss birthday plans. It's not every day a young lady turns eighteen."

Haru punched the air. "Yes! And I know exactly what I want!"

"Save it for breakfast. We can talk about it then." Her mother leant in and dropped a quick kiss to her daughter's forehead. "I love you."

Haru grinned. "I love you more."

"I love you most."

Haru watched her mother leave and, the moment her bedroom door swung shut, she yanked the bottom of the covers from where it had been overhanging the bed. "Hey, Muta. Get out here."

Something akin to a large, round marshmallow slunk out from beneath the bed. To anyone unfamiliar with the creature, it perhaps would surprise them to learn that it was not, in fact, a white and hairy pig, but a very fat cat. The feline sniffed disgruntledly and took a seat on the floor. "What's up, Chicky?"

"Okay, I know you live for food, but could you try to avoid shooting out every time my mother mentions anything edible?" Haru whispered. "If she knew that I was keeping you here…"

"She'd hit the roof, I know. Hey, it ain't my problem she doesn't like talking cats."

"As the talking cat living here, I think it is," Haru deadpanned. She glanced towards the door to check that her mother wasn't about to return any time soon, and dropped her head back to the cat. "So, I think today is the day! I'm finally going to ask her!"

Muta snorted.

"What?"

"Hey, nothing–"

"Don't 'nothing' me. What is it?"

"You know what it is. Do ya really think yer mam is going to do a dance and a jig when she hears your birthday wish?"

"She… might…"

Muta tilted his head to one side, looking thoroughly unimpressed at Haru's optimism. "I thought you knew better than that, Chicky. Fine. Go ahead and ask, but don't come crying to me when she turns ya down flat. If it's that important to you, why don't ya just leave?"

Haru gave a snort, much like Muta had only seconds ago, and collapsed back into her pillows. She pushed her long, blonde hair out of her eyes and trailed her gaze along her locks' winding path. "Don't start this discussion again. I like it here, and so do you. Anyway, who knows what might be out there…"

"I'll tell ya. Freedom."

Haru groaned and turned onto her side, away from Muta. "Yeah, yeah. I know."

Muta padded around her bed and pushed himself onto his hind legs, resting his front paws on the bedside. "Seriously, Chicky; the outside world ain't that bad."

"Then why do you stay here?"

The cat shrugged and dropped back onto all fours. "I ain't exactly popular with everyone out there."

"Why?" And, not for the first time, Haru's curiosity was piqued. She edged her head over the side of the bed to stare down at Muta. "One of these days you'll have to explain what you did."

"I didn't do anything!"

"Then why are you hiding away here? It doesn't make sense."

"Ya think too much, Chicky."

"Yeah, well, at least I think."

"What did you say?"

"Hey, shush!" Haru's teasing smirk was instantly wiped away as she heard footsteps up the stairs. She motioned frantically at the cat. "She's coming back! Hide!" she hissed.

Muta grumbled, but obediently retreated back under the bed. Haru pulled the bedcovers down, draping them along the side to hide any trace of her secret friend. She had only finished seconds before her bedroom door opened and her mother entered.

"Talking to yourself again, Haru?

Haru smiled innocently. "Who else?"

Her mother sat down at the end of the bed, a tray of food in her hands. "Well, now I'm here, we can discuss plans for your birthday. I really should have thought about this earlier… We only have two days until you turn eighteen…"

"Oh, that's alright! I know what I want, anyway."

"Oh, you do, do you? Well then, I'm all ears."

Grinning, Haru took the plunge. Well, this was it. This was her chance.

"I want to see the floating lights!"

ooOoo

Across the kingdom, atop the roof of the royal palace, three thieves were in the midst of a robbery.

Two were hooded and dressed in the kind of garb that would signify to any who saw them that they were obviously up to no good. But that mattered little for no one – guards or otherwise – glanced up to the palace roof that day.

The third individual was dressed in clothing that perhaps had a little bit too much flare to be wholly practical, but would go without too much comment in the common street. He wore no hood, but instead leant out from the rooftop with his tawny hair almost golden in the early morning sunlight. Bright green eyes eagerly watched the kingdom splayed out before them.

"Baron. _Baron_!" The shorter hooded figure grabbed the man's sleeve and, with surprising force for her diminutive size, hauled him out of his daydream. "Could you get your head out of the clouds for just five minutes?"

"How can I when we're on top of the world?" He glanced back across the city, a feline-like smirk playing on his lips. "Just… give me a moment…"

"We don't have a moment," the other thief grunted. He had pushed back his hood to give him a better view of the task at the hand – which, at the moment, was unscrewing a rooftop glass pane. Even with the hood up, the man was evidently wide-shouldered and bore a not-to-be-messed-with aura about him. With the hood down, the no-nonsense attitude was further plain by his unamused dark eyes and set jawline. "Get over here and help."

"Just a moment." Baron leant back out towards the view; the shorter thief glanced to her companion and shrugged uselessly. After several long seconds passed, he seemed to find what he was looking for. He nodded decisively. "Yes. Tsuge. Hiromi. I have decided that I want a palace."

"This one, or will just any do?" Tsuge asked dryly. He nodded towards the window pane he had finished opening. "Come on; we need you to get going."

"What?"

"Hey, that's my job!" Hiromi spun round, her hood dropping off in the motion. She was a woman of short stature, but that had never stopped her from having plenty of presence. Her hands flew to her hips in the kind of motion that immediately set ringing alarm bells in Tsuge's head. "I'm always the one to do the theft – and now you're giving it to fancypants there?"

Baron raised his hands defensively. "There's nothing wrong with my pants, thank you very much."

Tsuge groaned and rubbed at his forehead tiredly. "Hiromi, we discussed this earlier–"

"When?" Baron asked.

"When you weren't around. Or listening. One of the two." Tsuge resisted the urge to facepalm, and settled on running a hand down his face, where it slowed to a stop at his mouth. "Not that you seem to listen much anyway. Hiromi, you know why you can't go down that rope–"

"I'm pregnant. Not dying."

"What if something went wrong?" Tsuge demanded. "What if the rope snapped?"

"Wait." Several realisations whirred through Baron's mind, some a little slower than others. "So you're fine with dropping _me_?" There was a dubious pause, and then he added: "You're _pregnant_?"

"Yes. And?"

"Tsuge's right. I should be the one to drop down into the crown room."

"I'm not made of glass," Hiromi muttered, but she stood back. "I can see the next six months are going to be a real ball with you two acting as if I'm going to shatter at any moment." She smirked evilly at her husband. "I can't wait to see your reaction when it comes to the actual birth."

Baron tested the rope as he tied it around his waist, tugging cautiously at its strength. "So when was I going to hear about this?" At the guilty silence his question received, he picked up his head to stare at his companions. "Oh, come on; I was going to notice eventually."

"You're… not always the most observant of guys," Tsuge admitted.

Hiromi snorted at the understatement and continued to tie the other end of the rope to a rooftop beam. "Okay, question time is up." She gave Baron a small, but rather firm, shove to the back. "Time to get going before someone looks up and realises we're not their friendly neighbourhood window-cleaners."

"Fine." Baron rubbed his back sheepishly and stepped over to the opening. As he stared down at the long drop below – and his legs gave a little shake at the distance – he discovered newfound respect for Hiromi. "You… do have the rope, right?" he asked nervously. "You're not going to drop me, are you?"

"Do we look like idiots to you?" Hiromi demanded.

"That… doesn't answer my question."

"Just go!"

Carefully, Baron clambered over the edge and levered himself slowly down the rope. Directly below was the fabled crown originally crafted for the lost princess, allegedly worth enough to set a man up for life – or several. Surrounding it was an entourage of guards who, while well-trained and eager to do their duty, had made one major blunder. Well, two, to be exact.

Their first slip-up was to ever turn their backs on the jewelled tiara.

The second was in their failure to consider other entrances other than the grand doors at the front.

And so, as Baron scaled down towards the prize, there was no immediate uproar. He reached the tail of the rope and hooked one hand around the crown, gently hoisting it off its decorative – and rather useless – pillow. He gave the rope a tug to signal being pulled back up, just as one of the more-awake guards spotted Baron in the reflection of a window.

Baron froze. He stared back at the reflection of the woman, who was taking several seconds to compute the situation. Slowly, so as not to cause too much alarm too quickly, he gave the rope another tug, and steadily Hiromi and Tsuge began to heave him back towards the rooftop window.

The guard recovered her wits and the cry went up.

Baron tugged the rope pointedly and, when the ascent failed to hasten, began to clamber back up of his own accord. He hightailed it up just in time to avoid the guard's spear. More guards were being summoned now, and the room was quickly filling with a collection of soldiers who could no more reach Baron than they could fly.

Baron finally reached the top and hauled himself out onto the rooftop, hastily stuffing the crown into a satchel at his side. "What took you two so long to pull me back up? I almost got skewered!"

"You're heavy!" Hiromi snapped. "Maybe you should cut down on all the tea you drink!"

"Well, maybe you shouldn't have sent me down there if you couldn't pull me back up!"

"Who else was there? Tsuge?" Hiromi snorted and motioned to her husband. "No offence."

Tsuge slung an arm around the woman. "Why should I be offended? Everyone knows muscle weighs more than fat." He smirked at Baron, who considered arguing back and then remembered that Tsuge was, in fact, almost entirely muscle.

As the alarms began to ring, Tsuge's smirk fell clean away, replaced by the kind of worry borne out of the fact that no one else around him ever seemed to really worry themselves. "Okay, playtime's over. Time we got moving."

"Are thing's really so dire?" Baron asked with a smile. "What are they going to do with us all the way up here?"

As the words left his lips, an arrow whizzed only inches from his face.

"Okay. I concede you may have a point." Baron glanced down to see archers lining up at the foot of the palace, with backup quickly coming in the form of mounted guards. "New plan: Run."

ooOoo

For once, Haru's mother's composure was somewhat lacking; her usual grace had been replaced with something pale and drawn. The tray hit the bedcovers with dropped force. A splash of egg yolk hit the sheets, but she didn't brush it off.

"You want to see what?"

"The floating lights!" Haru repeated, more urgently this time. She scrambled out of her bed, doing her best not to trip over her hair as she made her way to the window that had been thrown open only fifteen minutes earlier. "Once a year, lights appear in the sky, always on my birthday. And… I don't know, but…" and here, Haru blushed and felt a little foolish, "but I can't help but feel that they're for _me_ …"

Her mother glanced to the window, but didn't seem to see the high-rising cliffs beyond. "Haru…"

"Please!" Haru begged. "Just once, just take me to see them once, and then I'll be happy and I'll never ask for anything I again, I promise, _please_ –"

Her mother approached and her hands curled tightly around Haru's. They felt thinner than yesterday. "Haru, you know why we stay here–"

"To protect me, I know," Haru finished. "I just… I don't get why we can't go out for… a day or so… We could be careful – I could plait my hair, find a way to keep it out of sight, no one would know about it–"

"And when a child falls out of a tree, or a carriage runs out of control and hits someone, or a trapper is attacked by wolves, will you be able to stand idly by?"

Haru didn't reply immediately. Couldn't. "There's no guarantee that'll happen," she said quietly.

"The world is dangerous. There'll always be someone in pain." Her mother raised a hand to Haru's cheek and gently caressed it. "You are too kind to do anything other than help, Haru," she murmured. "It's just who you are, and I love you for it… but I cannot allow anyone to discover your power. Surely you understand that?"

"The world cannot be all bad," Haru muttered.

"No, it isn't. But all it would take is one bad person." Her mother's fingers looped through Haru's hair, something unreadable in her eyes. "There are those out there who would take you away if they found you, Haru. Who would use you as a living panacea for the rich and spoiled; an asset, a miracle medicine. A _possession_."

"I could… I could take care of myself," Haru said eventually. "Maybe I could… learn how to, if you would teach me. I could learn to defend myself."

"Haru–"

"If I could fight back, you wouldn't have to worry–"

Her mother laughed, not unkindly, and shook her head. "Haru, you're not a fighter. You're a healer, and not just because of your hair. Just trust me. Please."

She brushed a thumb across Haru's cheek, an apology in her bright blue eyes. "All I want is to keep you safe. You have no idea the lengths I have gone, what I have given up…" She faltered, and for a moment her gaze was vulnerable. Her breath hitched. Then she inhaled sharply and regained her composure, briskly patting Haru's cheek. "We're almost out of food, so I'm going to be heading out to the village to restock. You'll be okay, won't you?"

"I'll be fine," Haru promised. As the door swung shut behind her mother, Haru added, "After all, nothing ever happens here."

ooOoo

The trio of thieves slowed to a breathless halt far into the forest. With a kind of hysterical, gasping laugh, Hiromi fell back against a tree trunk, wincing as a stitch began to set in place. "That… That was crazy. Do you think we lost them?"

"For now, anyway," Tsuge said. "Hey, are you okay? You shouldn't be running in your condi–"

Hiromi's glare withered Tsuge's words into silence. "Don't even think about finishing that sentence. I'm fine. For goodness sake, Baron's more out of breath than I am!" She motioned to the man sprawled on the ground.

Baron opened his mouth to protest, but quickly found he did not have the air to spare. He motioned that he had something to say, to which Hiromi and Tsuge were kind enough to wait for. After several laboured seconds he just about managed, "Not fair. I fell back there. I think I sprained something…"

"So there's no need to worry about me," Hiromi said. "I'm doing even better than Baron."

The man in question raised a hand. "Talking of me, does anything have something for a sprained ankle?" '

Tsuge grumbled something under his breath, but knelt down to examine the foot in question.

As she waited for a verdict, Hiromi stretched, trying to ease the stitch that was now well-settled. Her shoulders caught against a couple of notices pinned to the trunk.

"Well, it's not sprained; you just pulled a muscle, I think," Tsuge said. He patted the foot a little roughly, causing Baron to wince. "You'll live."

"Aren't you going to tell me not to run in my condition?" Baron asked with a teasing grin.

Tsuge's expression dropped into deadpan mode. "You'll live," he repeated.

"Hey, come and look at this!"

At Hiromi's cry, both men rose to their feet – somewhat unsteadily in Baron's situation – and joined the young woman. She pointed towards a pair of wanted posters.

On each there was a sketch of the wanted criminals. In Hiromi and Tsuge's case, there were no facial features; only hooded figures drawn with the aura of criminal intent. Instead of names, the poster only decreed that 'The Hooded Twins' were wanted, dead or alive.

Hiromi tutted. "Twins? Really? We're _married_."

"Never mind that – look at my portrait!" Baron motioned to his sketch. It was an apt likeness, unless one counted the bulbous nose protruding from the face. Unfortunately, the nose was all the eyes were drawn to. "I don't even wear a hood, and they still get my face wrong!" He paused and prodded dubiously at his own nose. "It doesn't really look like that, does it?"

Hiromi paused, and then made a deliberate show of glancing from the portrait and then to Baron's real face with careful consideration. "Oh… I don't know how to tell you this…"

The worry fell from Baron's face, to be replaced instead with disbelief. "I don't know why I even asked you…"

"Because I am always right," Hiromi laughed. "Isn't that the case, Tsuge?"

Her husband shrugged. "Trust me, Baron; just go with it."

"Anyway," and the woman swung back to face the poster with critical distain, "who would even think we're related? We look nothing alike! For Grimm's sake, you're half a head taller than me!"

"Maybe this is why we wear the hoods?" Tsuge reminded her idly. "To keep our identities secret?"

"I know, but twins?" She scoffed and waved her hand loosely in Baron's direction. "If they wanted twin thieves, perhaps they should have put up a poster of you and–"

"I don't work with my brother anymore," Baron said. His words were curt; the humour abruptly drained from his expression. "You know that, Hiromi."

"I know. I was just saying…"

"Well, please don't. It makes me uncomfortable."

"It makes a whole lot of people uncomfortable," Tsuge muttered, but his attention was quickly caught by an almost inaudible rumble rattling the ground. He froze, as if this would undo the realisation. "Hey… uh, do you feel that?"

"Feel what?" Hiromi asked.

Baron tipped his head to one side, and now he picked up the developing shaking. "Horses," he said.

"Lots, by the sounds of things," Tsuge added. "It looks like the guards have finally found us. Hiromi, are you okay to–"

"I'm fine!"

"I'm fine too, in case anyone's curious," Baron added. He scrunched up the wanted poster in his hand and dropped it into the same satchel with the crown. He started to run, and then slowed as his leg reminded him of his previous fall. "Wait – no, I've definitely pulled something… Yes… Yes, it feels like a muscle. I've pulled a muscle, guys; what do we do?"

Tsuge and Hiromi shared a look that Baron decided he didn't like.

Hiromi shrugged. "I guess we have no choice then…"

"He's not going to like this…"

"Wait! You're not going to leave me behind!"

"Of course we're not," Tsuge huffed. "What do you take us for?" He ambled up to the other man and then, without warning, hoisted Baron up into a fireman's lift. "Come on. We'd better get running."

"Hang on a moment!"

"Do you _want_ to be left behind?" Hiromi asked, sprinting behind Tsuge and thus having a front-row seat to Baron's facial dramatics. "Or do you want to live to thieve another day?"

"This will ruin my reputation!"

Tsuge laughed, his shoulders shaking enough to give Baron mild motion-sickness. "What reputation?"

"My reputation as a wanted man!" Baron waved the satchel. "I have a wanted poster, after all!"

"Shame it doesn't look anything like you," Hiromi sniggered.

"It has my name on it. It counts. Ow!" He raised his arms to fend off the branches that were thwacking into his face with increasing frequency. "Could you try _not_ to acquaint my face with every dratted tree in the forest?"

"Sorry." Tsuge thundered to a halt, evidently staring at something that Baron couldn't see. "The forest gets so thick here that it's hard to make out a trail."

"Perfect," Hiromi said. "The guards won't be able to get through here with their huge horses – they'll have to come through on foot or give up. Do you think you can run now, Baron?"

"I suspect my muscle is as pulled as it was ten minutes ago," Baron deadpanned, but the words had barely passed his lips before Tsuge had dumped him back onto the ground. "Hey!"

"Hey, it's either that or you can have your head dragged through every branch in the place. There isn't any room here for me to carry you."

Baron rose to his feet, pointedly rubbing at a bruise, and turned to examine the woodland. Any smart comment died on his tongue, instead to be replaced with, "Pine trees."

"Yes, we see that. Now, come on!"

"It's a plantation!" Baron called. He limped after his fleeing companions, decidedly ignoring his ankle's complaints as he heard the guards reach the edge of the thickened woodland. "An overgrown pine tree plantation!"

"Great! Do you wanna admire the trees or do you wanna get going?"

At that moment, chaos erupted in the form of a dozen guards pushing their way through the man-made woodland. Tsuge and Hiromi fled along the narrow left path and Baron, in a sudden fit of survival instinct, went limping along the right route.

"Sir! The thieves have separated! Which should we go after?"

"Split up! Any one of them could have the crown!"

Baron pushed his way through the thickening woodland, where here the trees were older and even more unmanaged. Their spindly, prickly branches caught at his sleeves and trouser legs, and he didn't like to imagine how Hiromi and Tsuge were managing in their cloaks. By the sounds of things, the guards weren't faring much better either.

As the sound of a rushing river became audible over the chase, Baron found his feet slipping and sliding. The only thing keeping him up anymore were the close-knit trees. And, as the river came into sight, the ground gave way beneath his feet. He plummeted into a hole.

He had no chance to get his bearings before the guards pounded onto the scene above him.

"Where is he?"

Baron sank further into his unintentional hiding spot. It appeared that the river had once eroded the soil away from the tree's roots, leaving a secret hollow beneath the pine. The tree's shadow covered the hole, which was why Baron hadn't seen it until he had slipped right into it.

Hopefully no one else was about to make the same mistake.

"He must have decided to run along the shoreline."

"Idiot! There's no cover there – we'd be able to see him if that was the case!"

"Well then, what's your suggestion, moron?"

"Who knows? Perhaps it was magic," the guard retorted sarcastically. "All I know is that we'd have bleeding seen him if he'd decided to take a dip–"

"Gentlemen." The icy tones of the guard captain seeped into the conversation, cutting off whatever the other man had been about to say.

Baron squirmed in his hiding place and, from between the roots, managed to catch sight of the captain.

The captain wore no obvious sign of his rank, save for the unspoken authority that he issued. With his dark hair and unremarkable face, there was nothing really to mark him out unless one counted the black crow that landed on his shoulder.

"Toto." The captain stroked the bird's feathers in greeting. "How goes the search for the other thieves?"

"Poorly," the crow answered. "They managed to give us the slip. Is there any sign of the Baron?"

"He was seen running in this direction. Saito, Ito – search north along the river; Minami, Yamada, go south. Unless the idiot wants to wade out across the river, he's got to be stuck somewhere in this forsaken forest. Now, go!"

Baron retreated further into the roots as the guards hurried out along the shoreline. When relative silence had fallen back across the man-made wood, he pulled himself out of the hollow and began along the lowered stony shoreline until he came to an artificial fjord. Risking the dash into the open, he dared to cross it. He thought he had got away unnoticed until there was an unearthly avian screech.

He ducked just in time to avoid the crow's talons raking across his head.

"Hey! What was that for?"

"I've found him! I've found the Baron! He's over here–!"

There was a thwack as Baron smacked the crow with his jacket.

He leapt the last few steps across the fjord and stumbled up onto the bank. As he pushed his way through the trees, he came into sight of a cliff face blocking his way.

Fresh shouts from the guards spurred him into action. He squeezed himself through a gap in the cliff front, the satchel catching awkwardly on the walls as he went. The fracture curved to the right, and there was a glimmer of light from where it opened out.

A shadow flitted across the gap he had entered, passing by and then returning to the opening.

Baron turned just in time to see the captain's crow race down towards him. He stumbled further along the passageway, turning the corner just as the bird slammed where his head had been not two seconds before.

"What did I ever do to you?" Baron demanded.

"Do you want a chronological list of your felonies, or alphabetical?" the crow snapped.

"A little bit of petty thievery never hurt anyone!"

"Petty? You stole the lost princess' crown!"

"It wasn't like she needed it!" Baron could now see the opening, and so he dove for it. As he broke through, he abruptly discovered that the exit was several metres above ground. He skidded just in time to avoid dropping straight off – that was, until the crow cannonballed into his back and sent both tumbling over the edge.

"Ow… Ow, ow, ow…" Baron rose unsteadily to his feet, taking a few test steps to ensure nothing new had been sprained. Apart from his already-pulled leg, everything seemed to be in order. The crow had fared less well, and was hopping across the ground with one wing dragging at his side.

Baron eyed the bird and snatched up his dropped satchel and jacket. He hesitated.

"You'll be okay," he rationalised. "After all, you're the royal guards' pet. They'll come looking for you. And I really cannot afford to be around when that happens. Just… try not to look like lunch for any, you know, wolves or bears or suchlike."

"Get back here! Thief! Crook! Outlaw!"

"I'm a gentleman thief," Baron called back. He started away from the tunnel exit and heavily-protesting crow, heading out along the sparse forest until it opened up into a large, grassy clearing. A tiny valley lay out before him, blocked on all sides by rocky cliffs. Hidden away from the world.

And, in the very centre, was a lone tower.


	3. A Perfect Refuge (All Except for the Occupants)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: To those who follow my Tumblr account, you'll probably recognise part of this chapter, as it was one of the very first scenes I wrote for this story. (Along with Baron's first scene in the previous chapter.) Anyway, enjoy!

The tower was a perfect hideaway in all but one respect: The lack of a door.

In some ways, this would be advantageous, but only once he actually managed to get inside the building. Right now, Baron was left standing outside the aforementioned tower with his feet very solidly on the ground.

Then again, beggars couldn't be choosers.

With a measurement of feigned confidence, he took hold of the ivy clinging to the walls, and began to make a slow ascent, slowed yet further by his sprained ankle. A lone window at the very top – and it had to be at the very top, didn't it? – marked the only visible entry into the tower. It was open too, so when he hauled himself up the last few bricks, he pulled himself straight into the room.

He tugged his jacket collar back into place, brushing at a few stains gained on the climb. "Finally, peace at last." He pulled the satchel from his side and dropped the crown into his hands. It gleamed in the evening light. "Now it's just you and me–"

The world went dark.

ooOoo

Haru screeched and jumped back, almost dropping the cane in the process.

Another human!

Another living, breathing… _human_ …

And probably healthy right up until she had slammed a cane across his head.

Muta waddled over to inspect Haru's handiwork, scruffing his claws at the edge of the man's jacket. "'Kay, so now you've whacked him with a walking stick, what do we do?"

"I… uh, I hadn't thought that far ahead."

"I say we toss 'im back out the tower," the fat cat suggested, sparing Haru a wickedly gleeful grin at the thought.

"Muta!"

"What?"

"We can't do that! We'll have to… hide him, or something."

"Hide him? Hide him _where_ , Chicky? Ya mother's gonna bust a gut if she finds him here."

Haru grabbed the man's collar and started to drag him across the room. "The wardrobe," she wheezed. "Grimm, he's heavy! Wait… Muta, let go of his boot."

"We can't keep him here!" Muta growled, his reply muffled around the shoe he was tugging in the opposite direction. "Who knows where he's come from!"

"I'm not throwing him out of the window! Gah!" The boot was pulled free from the unconscious man's foot, sending both tug-of-war individuals stumbling. Haru picked herself off the floor and looped her arms around the man's shoulders, heaving him towards the wardrobe. "Muta, just help me open the doors, okay? I'll figure something out."

"Fine. But this is still a stupid idea."

"Is that what you think? Wow, I had _no_ idea," she shot back sarcastically. "Doors, Muta."

The white cat, still grumbling, yanked the wardrobe doors open and stepped back. "So how are ya gonna get him in there, Chicky?"

"I'll… I'll think of something." Haru propped the man against the door and stepped back to examine the situation. After some calculations, she grasped the front of his jacket and tried to lift him up into the wardrobe. There was a kerfuffle when, just as she managed to lean him against the interior, he fell forward and flattened Haru.

"Bad idea! Bad idea! Get him off me, Muta! And stop laughing!"

"Tell me again why we can't just throw him outta the tower?"

"You know why! Now come and help me! He's heavy…"

With some help from Muta, Haru finally managed to roll the intruder back onto the floor. There was a painfully solid thud as his face smacked against the ground.

"Any other bright ideas, kid?"

Haru glared at Muta. "At least I'm coming up with ideas. Ones that don't involve murder," she added before the cat could protest. She pushed herself back to her feet and pulled at the man's jacket again.

"Ya know, I'm pretty sure the definition of insanity is trying the same thing with different results, or something–"

Haru ignored Muta, and this time stepped into the wardrobe first, dragging the man in after her. This time she sat him down on the closet floor, leaning his back against the wardrobe's side wall. "There. That wasn't so hard, was it?"

"Yeah, yeah, now get outta there and let's lock the door before ya mother comes back."

"Okay, keep your fur on." Haru leant down to pick up the discarded cane, but found herself pausing. She knelt down to get a better look at the stranger. "You know, I've never seen another person…"

"What about yer mother?"

"I mean apart from her. He's… He's not that bad looking, is he?"

Muta gave an aggravated scoff. "Don't ask the cat, Chicky."

"He actually looks… normal."

"What did ya expect? Fangs?"

She peered into the man's face. "I wonder what colour his eyes are…"

Abruptly said eyes flickered open, and Haru was given a clear view of bright green irises. She screamed.

The man screamed.

They both jumped back, quickly discovered the restrictions of the small closet, and the movement rocked the wardrobe in the process. The doors slammed shut and sent the two plummeting into darkness.

"Now, please, don't panic–"

Before the man could finish, Haru swung her cane in his general direction and there was the thud of wood connecting with his head. She eased her eyes open.

Muta had tugged the doors open and was, once again, admiring the results of Haru's handiwork. "Geez, Chicky. Ya did it again. Hit him any more times with that and we won't have to throw him out the window…"

Haru scampered out of the wardrobe and slammed the doors shut behind her. She secured a chair against the door – she'd read about it in books, but never actually tried it out herself before – and backed slowly across the room.

"I have a man in my closet," she whispered. She paused as she passed by a mirror, taking a moment to grin at her reflection. She looked almost… capable with the cane bared before her. "I have… a man… in my closet! Ha!" She swung round to face the mirror, looping the cane over her shoulder in the process. "Huh, not a fighter, Mother?" She swung her makeshift weapon through the air, spinning it to her side. "Tell that to my trusty cane."

The cane smacked into her head, eliciting a shameless snigger from Muta.

"Shuddup. It could happen to anyone." She sheepishly rubbed at her forehead. "Dang, that actually kinda hurts…"

"Hey, Chicky. You should come take a look at this."

"Huh?" She dropped the cane to the side, but still didn't release it, and wandered over to where the fat cat was sitting. At the spot where she had felled the man, there was a satchel and a bejewelled crown littering the floor. She knelt down and picked up both, but her eyes were caught by the beautifully-cut gems.

"Shiny, huh?" Muta commented.

"It's… so pretty," she murmured. She drifted back to the mirror and held the jewelled piece before her. "What do you think it is?"

Muta snorted. "What do ya think? It's a crown. Kings and queens wear them."

"I've never actually seen one though. Kings and queens, huh…?" She glanced across at the wardrobe currently imprisoning the unconscious stranger. "I wonder why he had it then…?"

"Heh, he probably stole it."

Haru watched her reflection and then slowly brought the crown up to her own head. A hesitantly content smile flitted over her features as she admired herself in the mirror. "Not bad. If I do say so myself."

Muta snorted.

"Haru! I'm home! Let down your hair!"

Both individuals jumped.

"No time for that, Chicky – yer mam's back. Get rid of that!"

"You've got to hide too, remember?" Haru hissed.

"Any time now, Haru!" her mother called.

"I'm coming!" Haru dumped the crown back into the satchel and dropped it all into a pot. That would have to do for now. She heaved her hair back over to the window and swung it over a hook at the top.

"I have a big surprise!"

"Uh, I do too!"

Her mother took hold of the end of Haru's locks, and laughed. "Oh, I bet my surprise is bigger!"

Haru snorted to herself. "I seriously doubt it."

Her mother stepped through the window and waved a familiar pot from her basket. "I picked up some fresh paint for you! Now, I know it's not much, but it's all they had at the village and I know you've been running on last reserves."

"Oh…" Haru took the small paint pot, an earthy, rusty-red, and found a surprised smile slipping across her features. "Thank you…"

"You're welcome." Her mother smiled back and then paused as she passed by the mirror. Fingers drifted across her face and trickled along the whitening pallor of her skin. "Not already," she muttered. She dropped her hand away before she had to think about her trembling hands.

"So, you know how you said that I'm not a fighter–" Haru began excitedly.

"Haru, I thought we had already discussed this…"

"Yes, but I can _prove_ that I can take care of myself." Haru stepped towards the closet, fingers stretching out to the latched doors. "I'm not as helpless as you think, so if you'll only look–"

"It's not that simple…"

"–then you'll see that I'm stronger than you believe, Mother! If I can show you that I can fight, that I can defend myself, then we don't need to hide away here anymore–"

"IT WON'T CHANGE ANYTHING!" her mother shouted. The basket slipped from her shaking hands and the rest of the paint pots smashed across the stone floor. She staggered back and sank into a chair, her hands rising, mortified, to her face. "Oh, I'm so sorry, those were for you, I didn't mean…"

Haru rushed forward, away from the closet and its secret, and now she saw the signs she had missed earlier in her eagerness. The colourless pallor of her mother's skin. The quiver of her fingers. The ragged breaths. Haru set a stool before her, and took the older woman's hands in her own. She hadn't been imagining things; they were thinner than before.

"It's getting worse, isn't it?" she whispered.

"It's fine–"

"It's _not_ fine," Haru retorted. "I'm having to sing for you more than I ever did as a child. You're…" _Fading_ , she thought, but did not say it. She swallowed, and brushed a wave of hair towards her mother. "Let me help."

"Haru, it's really not that bad–"

Haru ignored her and recited the lullaby that carried her healing power. Even as the first line left her lips, her hair began to gleam and glow, lighting up the room with its magic. It started at the roots and then spiralled along her golden locks until the whole tower was awash with its radiance.

The final notes of the lullaby lingered on her tongue and now the light already began to fade. She glanced once again back to her mother. The shaking had stilled. Her skin was bright with life. It was almost enough to make her forget the tiredness that had preceded.

"You should see a physician," Haru said. "You're sick."

"If your magic can't heal it, I doubt any medic will have any more luck," her mother replied. Her eyes swept across the room and crinkled into a frown when she saw her dropped basket. "Oh, your paints…"

"It's okay."

"I'll get you more."

"Really, it's fine–"

"No, they were going to be an early birthday present, and now…" She shook her head decisively and rose to her feet, the strength back in force. "I have time. I'll head out and bargain for some more. If I'm quick, I can return before it gets dark." She went to locate a pan and brush to sweep up the broken pottery shards. "Now, what was your surprise?"

"My surprise?"

Her mother grinned. "You said you had a surprise."

"Yes, I…" Haru looked at her mother, but all she could see was the toll the strange sickness had taken, the shape she had been in upon her return. She faltered. "I know what I want for my birthday," she said. "If you're getting paints, could you get the sunflower yellow you brought back last summer?"

"Is that all? Haru, I can find you something nicer–"

"I know, but I just… thought that I could paint the floating lights instead of… you know, going to see them." She attempted a sunny smile. "Then I can have the floating lights to look at all year round and they won't seem so… far away."

Her mother looked at her with an unreadable gaze, and then she set the dustpan and brush to one side and swept Haru into a frighteningly tight embrace. "Oh, Haru, I'm so sorry."

"It's… it's just paints," Haru stuttered, more than a little undone by the fierceness of her mother's apology. "I'll clean them up, or paint over it, if it comes to it – maybe put a rug down if the stain's that bad–"

"I just want to keep you safe," her mother whispered. "It's not fair. None of this is fair on you."

Haru stumbled to a verbal halt, emotion clogging up her throat. "We're never going to leave the tower, are we? No matter what I do, it'll never be enough, will it?"

Her mother's gaze skittered guiltily away. "Haru–"

" _Will it?"_

"No," her mother murmured. "Some dangers are too powerful."

Haru's heart sank, even as newfound determination set its course. "Okay."

"Haru –"

"It's… it's okay." She attempted a smile that felt almost genuine, even as her mind began plotting. "The sunflower yellow paint you bought was a few day's travel, right? You probably should be heading off sooner rather than later if you want to be back in time for my birthday."

Her mother released her, and gave her a searching look. "Are you sure you're okay?"

"I'll be fine," Haru said. "I always am."

"I can't help worrying," her mother said. She sighed and dropped her head against her daughter's cheek, exhaling slowly. "It's a mother's job."

"I'll be fine," Haru repeated. "Honestly. Look, why don't you sit back down while I pack some food for you? Rest." She moved away from her mother, reaching out to gather the stool in. "I'll get everything sorted out for you."

Her mother smiled as she sank into the proffered seat. "What did I ever do to get such a lovely daughter?"

Haru smiled weakly back and turned away. "Just rest. I'll be back in a moment."


	4. Lanterns & Satchels

Time ticked slowly by as Haru saw her mother off, but finally she was standing at the window of the tower, waving the older woman off. Despite her hammering heart, she waited until her mother had disappeared into the forest before racing back to the wardrobe and its contents. Muta slinked out of hiding just in time to see her throw the doors open.

The man slammed onto the floor like a bag of potatoes, and didn't move.

Muta sniggered. "Are ya sure you're not trying to kill him?"

Haru retrieved the cane from its stand and knelt down beside the unconscious stranger. She prodded him with the curved neck of the cane, tilting his head to one side until she spotted the faint movement of breath pass his lips. Regardless of whether she may have just broken his nose in the fall, he was, at least, alive. "Now what do we do?" she whispered. "What happens when he wakes up?"

"Well, considering that you've attacked him multiple times, it ain't gonna be pretty."

"That was self-defence!" Haru hissed as loudly as she dared. Tucking the cane under one arm, she grabbed the man's arms and hauled him over to a chair. After some effort, she managed to dump him onto the seat, and stepped back to admire her work. "We should probably tie him up, right? I mean, what if he turns out to be violent?"

"Any more violent than you with that cane?"

"He broke in!"

"Well, technically he hasn't broken anything yet–"

"Oh, shut up and help me find something to tie him up with."

"I've got an idea."

"What?"

Muta nodded to the sea of hair trailing after Haru.

"No."

"Why not, kid? You use it all the time to help your mother get in and out of the tower–"

"I'm not tying him up with my own hair," Haru retorted. "Just… no. End of discussion. What if he damaged it or cut through it? Okay, moving on. Oh!" Hit with a sudden idea, Haru disappeared up to the upper floor and into her bedroom, the hair snaking after her marking her progress.

Muta stayed on the lower floor. There was a flurry of movement on the floor above, followed by some curses that Haru had definitely picked up from Muta, and then she reappeared, her arms laden down with bedsheets. "Can you believe we don't own any rope in here?" she asked.

"Oh, gee, what a surprise," Muta deadpanned, giving Haru's hair a pointed look. "I wonder why."

"Alright, rein in the sarcasm, thank you." She twisted the bedsheet up to make it somewhat more rope-like, and started to tie it up at the back of the chair. That done, she used a couple of pillow sheets to tie his wrists into place. "Do you think we should just wait for him to wake up naturally, or try to wake him up now?" she asked, circling behind the man to check the bedsheet was holding. 

"Let's wake him up and see what he's doing here." Muta waddled over to the man's legs and extended his claws.

Haru managed to shove him out of the way just before he sank his claws into the stranger's calf. "What are you doing?"

"Waking him up," Muta said, the unspoken but overt 'duh' audible in his voice. "I ain't gonna wait around all day for the moron to finish his nap. But, fine; we'll do it your way." He clambered onto the chair with only mild difficulty and headbutted the man in the chin.

The man jolted awake. Muta slipped off the chair with a yowl and landed on the ground with all the grace of a pound of dough. Haru dropped down behind the chair, one hand pressed over her mouth while the other gripped her cane like a lifeline.

"Where am I?! What happened?!" The man paused and then groaned, perhaps taking a moment to appreciate the bruises that were rapidly developing. He passed his gaze over his situation, namely over the restraints keeping him in place. "What…?" He tugged at the pillow covers tying his wrists to the chair's arms, the air of bemusement falling over him. When it appeared they weren't about to pull loose, he slumped back against the chair. "Great. Today keeps on getting better and better. Hello?" He peered around at the apparently-empty room. "Is anybody there? I appear to be a little bit tied up."

Haru recoiled yet further, hidden as she was around the back of the chair. When she didn't respond, the man snorted to himself and could be heard to mutter, "Good going, Baron. ' _A little bit tied up_.' As if puns are going to get me out of this mess."

His foot nudged against something, and too late did Haru realise that she had left her hair snaking around the tower floor. He leant forward and poked a toe at the golden locks. "What the…?" He strained against the bedsheets, his head twisting and turning to try to follow the winding path of the hair. "What _is_ that?"

Muta headbutted Haru's arm, and then nodded towards their prisoner.

Haru made a face and shook her head. Her grip on the cane whitened.

The man, fast becoming frustrated with his predicament, resumed his attempt to break free. The chair began to rock as he wrestled against his restraints, its feet skittering across the ground. Haru had to shift back as the chair shifted a few inches to the right.

"Ah! Getting somewhere at last!"

The man paused long enough to appreciate his progress. His shoulders sagged several seconds later with the underwhelming two inches he'd moved. He sighed and cast his gaze about the room again, finally coming to a halt at the doorway to the kitchen. At seeing the opportunity for knives – or anything to cut him loose – he perked up and renewed his efforts.

Haru was shuffling along to stay safely hidden behind the chair, studiously ignoring Muta's prompts for her to intervene. Her heart felt like it was in her mouth, trying to burst free from her body. This wasn't meant to happen – then again, she had no idea exactly what was meant to happen. But this wasn't it. This was getting out of control.

The chair creaked, leaning precariously forward as the man misjudged and nearly fell onto his face. Both he and Haru screeched, and Haru leapt back to her feet in an instinctive action to grab the chair. The man kicked at the ground and the chair slammed backwards, knocking against Haru and suddenly she was pinned to the floor.

The man rolled his head to one side to see who he'd just flattened with the chair. His eyebrows rose as his gaze fell on the young woman. "… Hello."

Haru groaned and dropped her head against the floor. "This is embarrassing."

"Would you, by chance, be the one who has tied me up?"

" _You're_ the one who broke into the tower," Haru retorted.

"Technically, I broke nothing in order to enter–" His response shrivelled at the death glare he received. "However, I can see your point. Perhaps you would be good enough to release me and let bygones be bygones?"

Haru elbowed her way out from underneath the chair's back, toppling it onto its side in the process. "Not a chance." She gingerly rubbed at the developing bruises littering her back, sparing another glare to their captive. "What were you even doing here?"

"Well, before I realised this tower was already occupied – which, by the way, really isn't obvious – I was considering borrowing it as a hideaway. But, now I see that you're here, I'll happily leave as soon as you untie me and let me go on my merry way with my…" His pallor paled, his hands twitching as he reached for something that wasn't there. "My satchel! Where is my satchel?"

"I've hidden it," Haru laughed. She knelt down to his level, although making eye contact was somewhat hindered by the fact that the chair was still on its side. "Where you'll never find it."

He raised an eyebrow and peered again at the room around him. Eventually his eyes rested on the pot from which the satchel's strap could be seen hanging out still. "It's in that pot, isn't it?"

She hit him with the cane.

Again.

"You really can't stop yourself, can you, Chicky?"

"Shuddup," she retorted, but she was blushing with embarrassment. She hoisted the bag out of its lacklustre hiding spot and began to pace the room. After several moments she recalled a loose step on the stairs. She pulled the stone slab back and – lo and behold – there was a gap which would perfectly take the satchel. She dropped it in, shoved the slab back, and stepped back to admire her handiwork. "There."

"Amazing," Muta drawled. "Can we wake His Doziness now?" He extended his claws with a smirk.

"No scratching, Muta."

"He'll be fine."

"Muta…"

"…Fine." He huffed and retracted his claws, stepping up to the human to headbutt him again.

The man jumped into consciousness once again, taking several more seconds to register the world, notably the very round, very fat cat in front of him. "Wha…"

"Rise and shine, Sleeping Beauty."

The man glared at Muta. "Grimm, I hate talking animals."

Muta glared back. "Good, 'cause I hate talking humans."

Haru barely resisted the urge to roll her eyes. " _Now_ it's hidden where you'll never find it. So," she said, dropping down to his level, "who are you?" Her mind thought to the crown. "Are you a thief?"

"I am a gentleman thief, I think you'll find."

"That's just fancy talk for crook," Muta said.

"A crook with a code of honour."

"You stole a crown," Haru pointed out.

"Look, are we going to debate the moral finesse of burglary, or can we move the conversation onto something more relevant?" He sighed. "Can you at least put the chair back on its feet? If I stay any longer I fear the world will permanently take on a horizontal tilt."

Haru and Muta exchanged a glance. Haru shrugged and pulled the chair upright.

"Thank you." He smiled somewhat ruefully, but it hesitated when he saw Haru's face at the right angle for the first time. He blinked a couple of times in quick succession. "Oh. Hello."

"I think you permanently damaged him, Chicky."

"Do you have a name?"

"What kind of question is that? Of course he has a name–"

Haru nudged Muta none-too-gently. "A name," she prompted the stranger. "Please."

"I'm… Baron."

"That ain't a name, that's a title."

"It's the only name I'm going to give–"

"Yeah, but like, a baron is such a low-ranking status," Muta muttered. "It's about as low as ya can go without falling off the nobility ladder. At least go for something with a bit more pizzazz…"

"It's fine," Haru ordered. She sighed. "It's fine. Just go with it, Muta."

"I think yer forgetting that I don't call anybody by their name, Chicky."

'You've known a grand total of two people in nearly as many decades," Haru snorted. "I think your definition of 'anybody' is a little limited." She looked back to the man – Baron – who was watching them with uneasy apprehension. "Speaking of names, I'm Haru, and the marshmallow over there is Muta."

Baron scoffed humourlessly.

"What? Ya think my name's funny, fancypants?"

"No, it's not that…" although his pause indicated that the uniqueness of Muta's name didn't pass him by. He glanced to Haru, but he didn't quite make eye contact. "It's simply that every girl your age is called Haru. Of course you're a Haru."

Haru looked over to Muta, but the cat merely shrugged.

She turned her attention back to the thief, wielding the cane in what she hoped was an expert and intimidating manner. "What are you doing here, Baron? Did you come to steal my hair? To cut it?"

"No! Why would I want your hair?"

Halfway in the motion of throwing her next accusation, Haru paused. "What?" The cane dropped a few inches. "You're serious?"

"Of course I'm serious!" His gaze shifted momentarily to the swathes of hair trailing across the tower floor. "Even if…" he murmured, a little nonplussed, "it is rather impressive." He leant back as the cane swung back towards him. "How…? How long have you been growing it?"

Haru rolled her shoulders. "All my life."

"That's, uh, a lot of hair. Which," he hastily added, "I have no interest in taking. At all. Whatsoever."

"Really?"

"Yes!"

Haru eyed him and then turned back towards Muta, who had taken a seat on the table to watch the proceedings. "I think he's telling the truth," she whispered. "What do you think?"

"I say hit 'im again with the cane."

"This could be my only chance for a guide."

"He's a thief–"

"Who knows the outside world," Haru finished. She sighed and straightened, turning to their prisoner. "Okay, Baron, I have a deal that should get us both what we want." She strode over to a curtain and pulled it away to reveal a mural of the floating lights she'd been working on. "Do you know what these are?"

There was a snort behind her. "Well, I could take a guess if I could _see_ them…"

Haru scrambled back down from the mural and pulled Baron's chair in the right direction, somewhat hindering the dramatic reveal she'd been going for. "Better?"

"All except for the bedsheets tying me to the chair, great. I couldn't ask for better service."

"And I thought I got enough sarcasm from Muta," Haru muttered. "Look, do you recognise these floating lights or not?"

Baron peered up at the painting. "Do you mean the lantern thing they do for the princess every year?"

"Probably?" Haru guessed. "Is it happening tomorrow evening?"

"Yes."

"Then, yes." Haru straightened, pointing the cane once again in Baron's direction. "Baron, you will act as my guide, take me to see these lanterns, and bring me back home safely. Then, and only then, will I return your satchel."

"What part of 'gentleman thief' did you not understand? I can't just go sauntering back into the kingdom – I'm a wanted man! You'll have to find someone else."

Haru swung the cane to her side, irritation getting the better of her. She advanced on the man. "Something brought you here, Baron. Call it what you will: Fate, Destiny–"

"Desperation," he offered.

"–and I've made the decision to trust you–"

"A horrible decision," Muta supplied.

"–but trust me when I tell you this: You can tear this tower apart brick-by-brick, but without my help you'll never find your precious satchel."

Baron was leaning precariously far back to keep his distance between him and Haru with her cane. He glanced to Muta, who was watching the proceedings with overt amusement. "So… let me get this straight… You want me to take you to the capital, right into the heart of the kingdom from which I've just stolen one of their most precious treasures, just so you can watch a lantern show that, frankly, is one-a-dozen, and once you're back here, then you'll finally give me my satchel back?"

"Yes."

"… Are you sure I can't just buy you lunch and call it quits?"

Haru stepped away, folding her arms in the manner she'd seen her mother adopt on a non-negotiable point. Her mother had always won on those occasions. "Take me," she ordered, "to see the lanterns."

Baron groaned. He rolled his head in a frustrated motion, which only served to remind him of his restraints. "Alright, I didn't want to do this, but you leave me no choice. Here comes the smoulder." He raised his gaze to meet Haru's, his eyebrows taking on a funny tilt and his lips forming a small half-smile.

Haru paused, waiting for something to happen. She glanced to Muta, and then back to Baron. "Are… Are you doing it yet?"

His eyebrows began to slip down his face. "This… is kind of an off day for me; this doesn't normally happen."

"What _is_ meant to happen?"

Baron's expression fell away completely. "Of all the towers I could wander into…"

"Hit him with the cane already, Chicky!"

"Fine!" Baron cried, snapping back to attention before Haru could take the cat's advice. "I'll take you to see the lanterns."

"Really?!" Haru spun and immediately smacked him in the face with her wayward cane. "Oops… Sorry."

"You broke my smoulder."


	5. Outside

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Only recently did I realise the ironic parallels between Haru stuck in her tower in this fic, and the covid19 lockdown/quarantine that a lot of us experienced this summer... (I promise this story was planned long before 2020 became a garbage fire!) Anyway, here's to hoping that, like Rapunzel/Haru, we also get to explore the wider world this year :)

Haru lingered at the open window. This was it.

For nearly eighteen years her whole world had ended at the tower. The cliffs beyond might as well have been a painting for all the impossibility they had been, as tangible as the moon and stars and just as distant. She looped her hair over a hook above the window and tucked the cane safely under one arm.

"How big is the world, Muta?"

Muta padded over to the windowsill, coming to a halt alongside Haru. "Big, kid."

"How many people do you think there are out there?"

"I dunno. Millions? Billions? It's a busy place."

Silently, Haru mouthed the numbers. "That's… That's a lot of people," she eventually murmured. She glanced down to Baron, who was gingerly clambering back down the ivy. "And I've only met two."

"Relax, Chicky. You've got me. You'll be fine."

Haru grinned. "Is that meant to reassure me?"

"Haru, are you coming? You _do_ know how to climb, don't you?"

At Baron's call, Haru jolted back to their present situation. She leant fearlessly out, savouring the caress of the wind. "I don't need to climb."

She grabbed Muta and leapt out. The air whipped about her as she dropped, plummeting down towards the ground she'd only ever seen. At the last moment she pulled her hair taut and snapped to a halt. With one bare foot, she extended a toe onto the grass below and then her other foot. She released her hair and it spiralled down from the hook above.

A moment later and her legs gave way, and she dropped forward onto her knees, weaving her hands through the grass. "It's… even better than I imagined."

Baron jumped down the last few feet from the ivy just in time to hear Haru's murmured admission. He looked to Muta, who had scrambled out of Haru's grasp. "If she's amazed by mere grass, I'm not sure she's ready for the rest of the world," Baron admitted.

"Eh, I think it's more the other way around."

There was a squeal as Haru jumped into the shallows of the river running alongside the tower, giggling as the water tickled her feet. She leant down to watch the fish scattering at her arrival.

"I think the world better get ready for her," Muta said.

"That… is unusually optimistic, but you are aware the world is a dangerous place, right?" Baron asked after a few dubious seconds. Haru had moved away from the river now and was inspecting a dandelion in bloom. "I'm really not the safest person to be with."

"Yeah, yeah, save that kinda talk for another day. Realistic pessimism is my thing, buddy." Muta turned and started towards the exit out of the hidden valley. "Come on; we've got a festival to go to. Hey, Chicky! Ya coming or not?"

"Oh. Right!" Haru bundled up her hair and went following after Muta.

As she passed by Baron, he noticed she was running around in bare feet. His heart sank a little further.

This was going to be… a challenge.

Haru disappeared into the ring of trees that buffered the tower from the cliffs, and Baron quickly realised they might be facing trouble sooner than he expected. He started sprinting after her. "Haru, wait!" He stumbled his way through the forest, his pulled muscle giving him grief once again. "She's fast for someone who's never left her tower," he muttered. "Haru!"

He skidded to a halt upon coming to the opening in the cliff. Haru was scrambling her way to the tunnel, and Muta had already clambered up. There was no crow, however. He hesitated and stepped forward. Perhaps the captain's crow had managed to climb back up and through the tunnel? After all, it was high, but not particularly steep. Especially not to a creature with talons.

"Geez, we're not even out of the valley and yer already panicking. Great guide you're gonna be…"

Haru pulled herself up onto the ledge and turned his way. "Baron? What's wrong?"

"Nothing. I… just… Don't go running off like that. It could be dangerous."

Haru snorted. "Danger? Hah! I laugh in the face of danger!" She swung her cane through the air as if to demonstrate, and instantly lost her balance. Baron leapt forward to catch her.

"Really?"

In his arms, Haru blushed. "You can put me down, now."

"As you wish." Carefully, Baron lowered Haru back to her feet and started up to the tunnel opening himself. Once at the ledge, he leant down and offered a hand. "Come on; we have a festival to attend."

"I'm fine," Haru insisted. She scrambled up along the rocks again. As she came to the top, she lost her footing. Baron reached out and snatched her arm before she could go tumbling back down.

"There's really no shame in accepting help, you know."

She allowed herself to be pulled up the last few steps and onto the ledge. "Well, maybe I just wanted to prove something to myself. But, thank you."

There wasn't much room on the ledge, so Haru and Baron abruptly found themselves rather close. Baron was the first one to react, coughing and tactfully stepping back into the tunnel opening. Forgetting the rather low ceiling, he knocked his head into an overhanging rock and quickly ducked. Haru could hear him muttering to himself as he fumbled his way through the tunnel.

Muta raised an eyebrow at Haru.

"What?"

The cat snorted and rolled his eyes. He ambled after Baron, leaving Haru to bundle up her hair and follow her companions. Her mind treacherously wandered back to that abruptly-intimate view of Baron's face.

He had nice eyes.

She blushed and hurried through the tunnel. Right. Like she had any experience on the matter to judge. She just focused on getting through the passageway, following the sound of her guide's footsteps until light glimmered ahead of them. Her pace picked up at that point, hurrying into a clumsy run until she broke through and out into the glorious sunlight.

A laugh rippled through her, filling her whole being up until she felt like she too was made of sunlight. Beyond the cliff, another river ran before her, and on the other side of that was a densely-populated coniferous forest with branches so intertwined that it left the undergrowth in deep, dark shadow.

"This… is… amazing!" She somehow managed to make a noise that sounded like a squeak and a hiccup all at once. Her bare feet were dancing over the ground, taking her along the river's edge. "I can't believe I've done this!" Abruptly she paled and slowed. "I can't believe I've done this…"

"Oh, geez…"

"Haru?"

"What will my mother think?" she whispered. "Oh… she's going to be so mad when she finds out…"

Baron stepped up to her. "Haru–"

"Although," she added, spinning on her toes and facing him, though her eyes weren't meeting his, "that's only _if_ she finds out. I mean, what she doesn't know can't hurt her, right? We'll just have to get back before she does. We can do that. It'll be fine."

Baron reached out a hand to Haru, and then hesitated, as if unsure whether his reassurance would help or hinder.

"But what if we don't? Oh, Grimm, it'll destroy her if she comes back and I'm missing. I should go back. That's what any good daughter would do."

"Chicky…"

"Then again, what if this is my only chance to see the lanterns? I can't just give up on my dream! This could be fate!"

Softly, Baron lowered his hand onto Haru's shoulder; she jumped at the contact. "Haru, look–"

"It's just a little trip, after all– oh, what?"

"You seem a little… at war with yourself, Haru–"

Muta snorted.

"Now, I'm only picking up bits and pieces – forbidden road trip, overprotective mother – and let me just tell you that that can be fine, healthy even – but you clearly haven't thought this through. After all, me? Your guide? I can barely smuggle myself back into the capital, let alone with a plus-one. Listen, this is dangerous, and it would obviously break your mother's heart if something happened to you. You don't want that, do you?"

Haru sniffled. "No." Her shoulders sagged. "No, you're right…"

"Of course I'm right." Baron sighed. "Look, I didn't want to do this, but I've decided it's best if I let you out of the deal." He picked up Muta by the scruff of his neck and the cane, dropping both into Haru's arms. She buckled under the abrupt weight. "Here's your cat, cane. So I'll drop you back off at your tower, you can continue a mother-daughter relationship based on mutual trust, and voila, we can part ways as unlikely friends!"

"No!" Haru elbowed him away, dropping Muta in the process. "I am going to see the lanterns!"

"Oh, come on! This is a reckless idea and you know it!"

She swung the cane in his direction. "I will use this."

"Are you planning on beating back the soldiers with that?" Baron asked dryly.

"If necessary."

From the depths of a nearby bush, something rustled. Haru leapt a good foot in the air. As the thing emerged, Haru swung her cane into it – just in time for her mind to register it as a very small, very fluffy bunny.

The rabbit was punted across the river and landed with a soft _flumph_ on the far shore.

There was a long pause in which Baron and Muta simultaneously turned their gaze to Haru. She had frozen with the cane still in the air and a horrified expression colouring her face. After a few moments, the animal picked itself up, threw a disgruntled expression at the humans, and hopped off into the undergrowth.

Haru slowly lowered the cane and offered a rueful grin to her companions. "Sorry. I guess I'm a little jumpy."

Baron eyed the disappearing rabbit, then the cane, and finally Haru. "I expect it'd be a good idea to steer clear of ruffians and thugs then," he mulled. He paused, and Haru could almost see the gears whirring in his head. "I don't suppose you're hungry, are you? I know a lovely little pub nearby that we can stop at – it'll be my treat."

ooOoo

Haru's mother drew to a halt along the forest path, bringing her bag to her side and retrieving a gourd of water. Despite the warm sunshine, she shivered and brought her cloak closer around her.

"Come on, Louise," she murmured to herself. "It's just a little trip. Three days is nothing. It'll be good for you, in fact."

She slumped against a tree trunk, letting it hold her up while she drank.

Movement could be heard from the path ahead and instinctively Louise shied away. Drawing her dark cloak about her, she ducked down behind a bush just in time to avoid being spotted. She peered through the leaves, watching as the path was swamped by horses and blue uniforms.

"Palace guards?" she whispered. "What are they doing all the way out here?"

She shrank back into the foliage as they thundered past, her heart pounding. Haru. Had she made a mistake? She had always been so careful in visiting the neighbouring villages, but what if she had let something slip? What if someone had put all the pieces together? What if someone had followed her? If palace guards had found her, then it would only be a matter of time before…

She raced off into the forest, forgoing the meandering path for a direct route back to the cliffs. She stumbled through the rocky cave, not bothering for a light but acting merely on touch alone. The moment she made it out of the tunnel and past the forest, breaking out onto the grassy plain that held the tower, she began calling. For Haru. For her baby girl. For any response, please.

The tower was silent.

Panic was seeping through her, threatening to engulf her if she lingered for even a moment too long. She ran for a side of the tower overgrown with ivy, and began to tear it away. Eighteen years of ivy, to be exact. And behind the ivy rested an old and forgotten door, its hinges nearly completely swallowed up by rust and ruin.

She heaved it open to reveal a set of circling stairs. They were worn away and smooth; the only evidence left that at some point in its past the tower had been a busy and thriving place. What had happened to its previous occupants, Louise had never known. Cursed, possibly, or maybe they had died of simpler causes – illness, accident. Or perhaps they had merely moved out and found a better home.

All that mattered was that it was theirs now. Hers and Haru's.

Or maybe just hers now.

Struggling through the darkness, she finally made her way to the top and pushed open the trap door. It led out into the main room of their living quarters, where it had gone unnoticed for nearly two decades.

"Haru! Haru!" She fled upstairs, throwing open Haru's door to an empty bedroom. She tore through the rest of the rooms, but the tower was silent. She came to a slow halt in the main room, her shoulders now shaking and her legs threatening to give way. She toppled onto her knees, sobs catching in her throat.

"Haru… Haru, I'm so sorry… Where are you…?"

Light glimmered against her wrist, and she paused. Warily she passed her fingers over the spot of light and then turned to where it was coming from. At the bottom of the steps, one of the stone slabs had come loose, probably in her frantic search through the rooms. She unsteadily rose back to her feet and staggered to the step. She nudged it away.

Inside was a leather satchel.

She hesitated.

This didn't make sense.

Why would someone come, kidnap Haru, and then leave a satchel hidden away? For she knew it wasn't anything she owned, and Haru had never left the tower. After a little more deliberation, she upturned the bag and let its contents spill out.

The crown clattered to the stone floor, catching the light as it fell and sending rainbows through the air. Behind it came a sheet of shrivelled paper, floating somewhat brokenly after its companion.

Louise dropped the bag to one side and knelt down to examine the objects. Her attention invariably went to the crown first. In all her years, she had never seen such a finely-made item – all save for the gems and jewels she had seen while working in the palace.

The crown slipped from her grasp.

No…

The paper wafted down beside her, and now Louise caught a glimpse of the exact nature of the sheet. Her fingers dropped down to the wanted poster, skittering momentarily over the face, and then to the singular name of 'the Baron'. A frown flittered over her features, a hissed intake of breath stuttering in her lungs, and she came to a decision.

She stepped back up, taking both the crown and the poster, and stuffing them back into the satchel. She turned back to the trap door.

Haru was out there somewhere, and she was going to bring her daughter home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: At least one Lion King reference and Hercules reference were mauled in the making of this chapter. I'm sorry, Disney.


	6. The Sitting Duck

Muta's stomach gave an audible grumble.

"Hey, Thief, are we nearly there yet?"

"For the last time, _yes_. We are nearly there." Baron's patience was quickly wearing thin; something that the cat was all too aware of and happy to exploit. "Although if you ask again, I'll seriously start to consider the pros and cons of a cat burger…"

Haru hurried alongside him, deciding that it'd probably work best if she played peacemaker. She opted to move the conversation on. "So… what's this place called?"

" _The Sitting Duck_."

"Ooh. Does it have ducks?"

"No. Not live ones, anyway."

Haru scoffed. Baron was a good head taller than her, and she had to skip every few steps to keep up with his long strides. "Well, that's just false advertising then."

"They probably serve duck, however."

"I was hoping there'd be ducklings."

"And I was hoping that I'd have my satchel back by now, but life isn't always fair."

"Fair?" Muta snorted. "Ya stole that crown."

"Which I did fair and square," Baron insisted. "The guards just weren't quick enough."

Haru caught up with Baron and overtook him, skipping backwards so she could see his face. "You have a very skewed moral compass, you know that?"

"Only when it comes to inanimate objects, I assure you," he said. "You should have seen me a few years back." He missed a step, and Haru had to slow to avoid overshooting him completely. She managed to catch his murmur of, "Then again, perhaps it's best that you didn't."

Haru paused and leant forward. "Baron…?"

"Look – we're nearly there!" Like someone had turned a switch, Baron's mood sprung into an unusually cheery disposition. "I do believe it's just around this corner – come along, Miss Haru!"

Haru glanced back to Muta, who only shrugged and continued at his own pace, and then she turned back and hurried after her guide. "Miss Haru? Since when do you call me Miss Haru? Baron? What– ooh…" She skidded to a halt as the forest around them parted into an opening.

A bridge sat over the river, its path leading down to a squat building that looked like it was steadily sinking into the ground. Haru was somewhat reminded of Muta when he lay in the sunshine. A sign hung above the pub door, marking it out as _The Sitting Duck_.

"Haru, I think it'd be best if you… waited outside," Baron said.

"Wha–?"

"At least until I've ensured it's safe," he quickly added. "Look, I'm not the most popular person around right now, so it's probably for the best if you don't arrive with me immediately, just in case things take a turn for the worse."

"How do I know you're not going to leave me stranded?"

"You're the only one who knows where the satchel is, remember? Well, you and that cat, but I'll trust you over him any day."

"Likewise, buddy!"

Haru ignored Muta's comment, choosing to focus on Baron instead. "This had better not be a trick. I'm counting on you."

Baron paused. "Well, just for the record, _you're_ the one trusting a known thief." He shrugged. "But that's your choice."

"Please."

Half in the motion of opening the door, Baron hesitated. Something that felt horribly like responsibility came to a rest on his shoulders. He offered the young woman a smile. "Don't worry; I'm not going to allow any harm to come to you."

Baron entered the pub and, even before the door had swung shut behind him, a silence began to fan out across the room. Customers shifted out of his way as he went – not out of deference or fear, but out of the kind of respect that comes from someone about to meet a terrible fate.

Unsurprisingly, this didn't give him much confidence.

He arrived at the bar, where the broad-shouldered silhouette of Tsuge was cleaning out a couple of mugs in the manner that all bartenders seem to acquire. Beside him, a round tan cat was sitting on the counter, its dark brown tail swishing slowly as it lapped at a bowl of milk.

Of course, Baron could turn around and walk away now. This wasn't the only pub in the forest although, admittedly, it was one of the few with shady enough characters that he was unlikely to be hauled to the royal guard upon stepping over the threshold.

Unlikely, but not impossible.

He gave a tactful cough, although Tsuge had to know he was there. No bartender worth their salt would not pick up the icy change in atmosphere. Tsuge merely gave the mugs a couple of extra scrubs before slowly turning around to face Baron.

Baron was the taller out of the two, but there his physical advantages ended. Whereas Baron was more of the wiry disposition, Tsuge was mostly muscle. Mostly unfriendly muscle right now too. If it ever came to a fight between them, any sane man would put their money on the latter.

Baron included.

Baron offered the man a pleasant smile, to which there was no response from the unmovable Tsuge. It felt somewhat akin to figuratively running into a very solid, very unfriendly wall. Although, if a fight broke out, it would quickly change to a rather more literal description.

The bartender leant forward onto the bar, dropping the mugs down onto the counter with a hollow clunk.

"About time you made it back."

"I… became a little bit… preoccupied…"

There were a few half-restrained chuckles from the nearby customers who overheard. Evidently, this explanation wasn't going to satisfy anyone – namely Hiromi – and they knew it. As Tsuge glanced over at them, their sniggers abruptly died away and people suddenly became very interested in what they were drinking.

Tsuge's heavy gaze fell back onto Baron like a pile of bricks. "The missus isn't happy."

"That… I can believe. But," and Baron's voice hiked a little as he spotted a familiar, short shadow standing in the doorway of the back room, "it wasn't intentional, I promise. I will get it back, I assure you–"

"You _lost_ it?"

Suddenly, all five-foot-nothing of Hiromi was staring daggers at the man who was nearly two feet taller. She stepped up onto the hidden ledge behind the bar, bringing herself almost eye-to-eye with the man.

"I – I didn't say that–"

"Why would you need to 'get it back' if you hadn't?" Hiromi demanded. Her voice rose above what meagre chatter there was in the pub, clearing away all pretence at conversation. Those especially familiar with the pub sat back to enjoy the show. "Last we saw of you, you were hightailing it off into the forest, and now you turn up without the loot?"

"We thought you might have run off with it," Tsuge added, unhelpfully.

"Please, you know me," Baron appealed. "Would I betray you like that?"

One of the patrons chuckled humourlessly. She had been a regular since Hiromi's father ran _The Sitting Duck_ , and such patronage didn't come without certain perks or assurance.

"Do you have something to add, Yubaba?" Hiromi asked.

The witch chuckled again and lit up a fat cigar. "It's just that some of us aren't so quick to forget. It was only a few years back that you were still working with your brother, and I dare say many of us still remember what you were like back then."

"Things have changed," Baron said.

The witch inhaled on the cigar, and one could have parked entire carriages in the ensuing pause.

As she released the blue smoke, an unkind smile caught on her lips. "These two might trust you, but they do love a challenge. And with your history, I expect you were _quite_ the challenge." She took another drag on her cigar, and this time the smoke was a dull red. "After all, you haven't always been the trustworthy type, _Duke_ …"

Baron's face paled. "It's just Baron now," he whispered. "My brother may still go by that title, but I do not. Yubaba, I apologise for stealing from you–"

"You stole my name magic. And have you returned it? No–"

"I do not know where my brother is–"

"Well then, perhaps you should have kept a better watch on him. He always was a hot-headed fool. Who knows what trouble he's found himself in? Your whole family was a batch of rotten eggs, and I see no reason why you'll be any different."

"Hey." Hiromi pushed herself back into the conversation, sensing the slippery slope towards a tavern brawl heating up. "No fights and no magic in here. You want to duke it out, you take it outside."

Yubaba gave a half-hearted laugh and leant back into her seat. "No matter. The royal guard's already coming."

Baron stumbled away from the bar, already imagining the onslaught of guards bursting through the doors. "What? How…?"

The witch gave a wide grin. "Magic. I sent a little anonymous tip that the renowned thief, the Baron, was stopping awhile in the humble _Sitting Duck_ the moment you entered. And I doubt they'll be too pleased to see you. What was your latest crime? Ah yes, now I remember – the theft of the lost princess' crown…"

Things had spun out of control so fast. So very, very fast. He wanted to simply flee, but then he remembered the young woman outside who, against all his better judgement, was now at least partially his responsibility.

Grimm. Haru…

"Look, Hiromi, I'm working to get the crown back now," he fervently promised, "but I need you to do something, quickly and before the guards come. There's a young woman outside who I need to convince that leaving her tower with me was a bad idea – don't ask –" he ordered before Hiromi could even start to wonder, "so I need you to scare her. That way, she'll go back to her tower, I'll get the crown back, and we can all continue our dysfunctional, illegal lives. Understand?"

"Honestly… no."

"No, what? No, you don't understand, or no, you won't do it?"

"No, I don't have any idea what on earth is going on with your life for even half of that explanation to make sense, but I think I can scare a single woman. After all, have you _seen_ my customers?" She laughed. "Ain't that right, you lot? If I can handle you, I can handle anything!"

Approving whistles and calls were sent up from her customers, most of whom the description 'thug' would not have been wholly inaccurate.

ooOoo

Outside, Haru squatted against the brick wall of the _Sitting Duck_ , her hair bundled under one arm, the cane under the other, and Muta by her feet. From the moment Baron had entered, the audible mood of the tavern had changed to a hallowed kind of hush.

Just wait outside. That couldn't be too bad. After all, she'd spent her whole life waiting to see beyond the walls of her tower. A few more minutes couldn't hurt anyone…

Before even the second minute had passed, she was already shuffling her feet.

"He's been in there a while…"

Muta snorted. "Hold ya horses, Chicky. He's been in there for like thirty seconds. Give the guy a chance to screw things up at least."

"They didn't look very friendly from what I saw," Haru continued, ignoring the unhelpful remarks of her cat. "One of them looked like they had a bloodstain on their shirt, and I don't think any of them have bathed in the last week…"

Muta wrinkled his nose and glanced down at himself. "Ain't nothing wrong with a good old lick-clean."

"You know, I don't believe this is a five-star inn."

"Gee, you think? Now why would that upstanding thief tell any word of a lie, ya think?"

Haru started to reply, but then ground to a halt to scowl at the fat cat. "You could cut down on the sarcasm, you know."

"Only when you cut down on the gullibility, Chicky."

"Hey, he got us this far."

"Right. To the doorstep of a shady pub. Yeah, I see your point."

Haru grimaced and tried to keep her hair off the ground. There were certain practical difficulties with the wider world that she hadn't really experienced in her tower. At this point, it was namely keeping her hair free from every stray twig and creepy crawly that roamed the forest floor. She bundled it up under one arm just as the mood of the inn changed from a hallowed silence to approving uproar.

"What–?"

Muta sniggered. "Sounds like a bar fight."

There came the sound of pint glasses being pounded against the tables, their owners chanting, "Fight" with overt glee.

"Yep. Definitely a bar fight. Oh, I want to see this–"

"They can't! Baron's in there!" Haru jumped to her feet and slammed the door open.

Her arrival wasn't noticed by anyone, save those closest to the entrance who were nearly flattened by the door. And the reason was quite obvious – Baron had been hoisted off his feet by the front of his collar by a man who was most probably the bartender.

Haru dropped the hair she had been holding and went running. The chanting began to dissolve as their words were drowned out by the screaming young woman racing towards the budding fight with nothing but a flimsy stick in hand. She leapt over the bar – sending the tavern cat running – and landed on the man's back, hitting him over the head with her cane.

"Put him down! That's my guide!"

To her credit, the man did drop Baron, but that was probably more from surprise than actual intention. The overt horror in Baron's eyes did nothing to reassure her. This was pretty much the exact opposite of "wait outside".

The man reached back and slowly took hold of the collar of Haru's dress. He hoisted her off his back and left her hanging in the air, curiosity colouring his face.

Haru grinned and weakly nudged at his arm with the crook of her cane. "Hiya."

Behind her, Baron was scrambling back to his feet. "Tsuge, please – she has nothing to do with this. Let her go."

The man – Tsuge – kept his focus on Haru, however. "What are you doing?"

"I… think… I was attacking you, but, to be perfectly honestly, I may not have thought this through properly…" Haru admitted. She pointed to Baron. "But he's my guide and he's taking me to see the lanterns, which I've dreamed about all my life, so I need you to let him go… and me," she added, almost as an afterthought. She dropped her gaze to her toes, which were twiddling several inches above the ground. "Please."

There was abrupt, full-bellied laughter, and now Haru took note of the other person behind the bar.

She was a young woman with her light-brown hair cut into a bob and a ready smile decorating her lips. "He's your guide?" she laughed. She threw a thumb in Baron's direction. "Let me get this straight: _Baron_ is your guide? Oh man, that's the funniest thing I've heard all day. Tsuge, put her down."

To her surprise, Haru found herself being lowered down with considerably more care than Baron had been. Now she had both feet on the ground, she took a moment to appreciate just how much taller Tsuge was than her. No wonder he had been bemused at her attack.

"Um, yes…?"

The strange woman leant forward over the bar, staring down at Haru. Haru glanced to Baron, who made a motion for her to do nothing. Eventually, the woman seemed to find what she was looking for. "You're spunky and cute," she decided. "I like you. The name's Hiromi." Haru found a hand being offered before her. "Hiromi Tomoko and this is my husband, Tsuge. Say hello, Tsuge."

Evidently deciding he wasn't needed to break up or start up a fight anymore, Tsuge had turned his attention to clearing away the used mugs. "Hey."

"So why on earth is Baron your guide, out of all people?" Hiromi demanded, her voice lowering as if delivering juicy gossip, and yet her words were audible throughout the entire inn. "Is it because of the accent? I know the accent makes it seem like he knows what he's doing but, trust me, he hasn't got a clue."

"Hiromi, please–"

"Shush, Baron; I'm trying to help this clearly-confused lady. Why else would she agree to you as a guide?"

"Actually, I asked him," Haru said.

"Technically, it was more like blackmail," Baron amended.

"Bribery, at most."

"That really doesn't make it sound any better."

Hiromi watched their conversation with mild amusement. "When… did you two meet?"

"Um, probably about four hours ago?" Haru estimated. She looked to Baron. "Although you were unconscious for half of it…"

Haru missed the raised eyebrow Hiromi offered Baron. "What _have_ you been doing since we split up?"

"I'll tell you once this is over. Look, we need to get going before the guards arrive–"

Knocking at the doors felled a silence across the room.

"Too late."


	7. Cut to the Chase

"Open up in the name of the Queen!"

If there had been any doubt that the royal guard had arrived, it was quickly shattered. As well as the door, which was in serious danger of being broken down if someone didn't answer it soon.

Baron grabbed Haru's shoulders, fear tightening his grip. "Haru, they don't know you're with me, and you should probably keep it that way–"

"No."

"Listen, those guards are going to arrest me and, I don't know, leave me to rot in a dungeon for eternity, and that's if I'm lucky. You really don't want to get involved."

Haru moved round, blocking him before he could scarper off without her. "What did you _do_?"

"I stole from the Queen; isn't that enough?"

"Baron, over here." Tsuge motioned for him to move behind the bar. "You too, lady, if you're foolish enough to stick with him."

"She's not–"

"I think I get to decide that, don't I?" Haru snapped.

"Open up, or we will be forced to take action!"

"Do you hear that?" Baron gestured sharply to the door that was surely only seconds away from giving way. "This isn't a game!"

"I'm not treating it as a game! I'm coming with you." She sidestepped him and saw that Tsuge had revealed a trap door hidden behind the bar.

Baron appealed to the barkeepers for back-up. "Please, someone tell her how irrational she's being."

"We already decided that when we heard you were her guide," Tsuge admitted. "Look, you should get moving unless you want both of you to be found."

"Just be careful out there, okay?" Hiromi asked. She patted Haru rather firmly on the shoulder and then, to Haru's surprise, she leant in and whispered, "And… be careful around Baron, too." And then she patted Haru again so hard that it almost knocked the words from Haru's mind. "Looks to me like she's made up her mind, Baron! And don't forget to come back with the satchel later, or we won't hesitate to drop you off with the guards next time!"

Muta ran over to join them, now that the immediate danger of getting flung into a bar fight was over.

"Oh, are you coming too?" Baron asked pointedly.

"Stop lollygagging and let's get moving!" The cat leapt down through the trap door and scarpered off into the tunnel below. Haru looked to Baron, shrugged, and followed suit, hair under one arm and cane under the other.

Before Baron could join them, Hiromi caught his arm. "I don't know how you convinced her to trust you, but make sure you don't betray that," she warned. "She seems sweet; I'd hate for something to mess her up."

"I was stupid in the past, not heartless," Baron protested. "There's a difference."

Hiromi didn't look impressed. "Fine. Don't do anything stupid then." She shooed Baron down the tunnel, shoved a lit torch into his hands, and threw the trap door shut just as the palace guards finally realised the front door was unlocked and slammed it open.

"We said to open up in the name of the King!"

Hiromi merely smiled and stepped up onto the hidden ledge behind the bar, giving her the illusion of an extra foot of height. "The door was unlocked, good folk; you were free to enter whenever." She leant her hands against the counter, still smiling innocently. "Now, what can I do for you?"

The captain, a man no older than Hiromi, slammed a wanted poster on the bar. "We've received word that the known criminal, the Baron, has been seen here. Where is he?"

Hiromi tugged the paper loose, sparing a brief glare for the abuse to the counter. She brought the poster up to the light, taking time to examine the portrait. It was true that there was a likeness to Baron, but – again – the wildly incorrect nose distracted the viewer from much else. She shrugged and returned the poster. "I can't say that I've seen such a face around here, sir," she said. "Do you? Perhaps you should try another inn? We're often confused with _The Snuggly Duckling_ , so I can understand your mistake–"

"There's no mistake," the captain growled. "We've received word from one of your customers that he was here. So where is he?"

As he slammed a fist on the counter, Tsuge stepped up behind his wife, his shadow falling ominously over her and the captain.

"One of our customers, you say?" Hiromi echoed, surprise colouring her features. She acted as if she hadn't spotted the way the guards had retreated at her husband's approach. "Oh, then, I understand your concern, since our customers are _so_ reliable…" She trailed off to give way to the sniggering of the aforementioned customers. She spared a glance to Yubaba, but the witch appeared to have no interest in helping the royal guard; it seemed scaring Baron had been her aim.

The captain squirmed a little where he stood.

"But, if you are indeed so very certain that a renown criminal has snuck in without notice, you may search the premises," Hiromi sighed. She leant against Tsuge, pointedly resting a hand on her belly. "You may search the poor, struggling inn of a pregnant woman, by all means. I only hope the stress doesn't upset the baby."

The discomfort of the guards dropped off the deep end at that, the captain's face turning redder than a sunburnt tomato.

"Ah. Madame, it appears there's been a… misunderstanding. We apologise for the inconvenience." The captain tipped his hat in a moment of awkwardness and backed away. Hiromi watched with one eyebrow raised as he hissed at the other guards to leave.

They opened the door just in time for a bird to half-fly, half-fall into the pub. It just about recovered in time to flap onto the bar counter, earning a glare or two from Hiromi as its talons skittered across the surface.

"Toto? Where have you been?" the captain asked.

"In pursuit of the Baron, but I lost him a while back."

"No matter; we received word that he is hiding in one of the local taverns."

Toto glanced about at the shady characters occupying the inn. "He'll fit right in," he muttered.

Hiromi leant down towards the bird, a dangerous gleam in her eyes. "And what does that mean?"

"Nothing," the captain assured. "We'll be going now, Madame. Sorry for taking up your time."

Toto, however, wasn't so easily appeased. He hopped away from the captain – who was trying his best to subtly herd the crow off the counter – and turned towards the barkeepers. He narrowed his eyes at the two. "I'm sure I've seen you somewhere before…."

Hiromi's smile never wavered. "We do get out of the inn sometimes, you know. Perhaps you spotted us on one of our rare trips to the capital."

"No… That's not it…" Toto said. He hopped up onto a beer pump – one of many that lined the bar counter – to get a better look at the couple. Just as he was about to dismiss it, the pump handle dropped down with his weight.

There was a grating noise as a trap door behind the counter slid open.

"What is that?"

In Hiromi and Tsuge's defence, neither looked particularly guilty at the find, only slightly put-out.

"Underground tunnel," Hiromi admitted with a half-hearted shrug. "No tavern worth its salt doesn't have an escape route built-in. Is there a problem?"

Several expressions were passing in quick succession over the captain's face. Eventually he seemed to decide that getting angry in a pub full of unscrupulous characters with a definite bent against the law wasn't his best course of action. Instead, a tight, polite smile manoeuvred its way onto his face.

"Madame, what is a hidden passageway doing behind the counter?"

"Not much, to be honest. It kind of came with the place. We mostly use it to hide the good barrels."

Irritation at Hiromi's continual light-hearted tone flickered over his eyes. He pushed it back. "I must insist that we investigate this hidden escape route for signs of the criminal. If you try to stop us, we will have to use force."

For the first time, something akin to unease passed between the barkeepers, but it passed fast enough that the captain almost missed it. Hiromi smiled and stepped back, flipping up the counter flap to clear the way. "By all means, take a look if you must. The back tunnels have been unused for years, so don't blame us if they're crawling with rats."

She watched as the royal guard slowly – and hesitantly, in a few cases – descended through the trap door and into the tunnels. The moment she let the trap door fall shut, uneasy conversation sprouted up from the silence.

"Do you think that was wise?" Tsuge asked. "Letting them go down after Baron like that?"

"What other choice did we have? Bar fights are one thing, getting into a fight with the royal guard is another." Hiromi snorted. Now that the chaos had calmed, the inn cat jumped back onto the counter, returning back to guard its bowl. Hiromi stroked the feline absent-mindedly. "I'm not going to be responsible for putting _The Sitting Duck_ under suspicion; my father would turn in his grave. Anyway, Baron and Haru should have put some distance from here by now."

The bar door slammed open – "It's busy today," Tsuge muttered – and a harried woman burst into the inn. "My daughter!" she cried. "Please, has anybody seen my daughter?"

Hiromi took only one look at the woman and her light blonde hair for alarm bells to begin ringing in her head. She groaned and motioned for the woman to come to the bar. Today was just getting more and more complicated. "Your daughter?"

"Yes." The blonde woman hurried over to the counter. From that distance, Hiromi could see that the woman's hands appeared to be shaking from either shock or fear. "She's called Haru. She's about this high, with very long blonde hair, and she's never left home before! I think she's been taken! Please, tell me you've seen her!"

Tsuge swore under his breath.

Hiromi's internal words on the matter weren't much better. She curbed them verbally, however, to prevent panicking the mother any more than she was already. "Yes, we've seen your daughter. She's with a man called the Baron–"

"What?" The woman dropped a hand into her cloak, fishing around in a bag hidden by the cloak's shadow. She brought out a wanted poster. "Is this the same man?"

Hiromi took the paper, although she already knew it to be him. "These things really get around, huh?" she murmured. She looked back to the woman, her heart sinking. "Yes, this is him."

The woman's shoulders sagged, her breathing slowing as if trying to steady her probably-racing heartbeat. When she looked to Hiromi, there was determination in her sky-blue eyes. "Where are they?"

Hiromi and Tsuge exchanged glances, but they already knew their answer. "They've taken an underground tunnel, but it's long and winding. If you want, we can tell you where it ends. You might be able to get there before they reach the exit."

"Tell me."

ooOoo

"I've never seen anyone take on Tsuge like that."

Easing her way carefully along the tunnel, lit only by the torch Baron carried, Haru paused to glance at her companion. "Are you impressed or are you judging me?" she asked.

"A little bit of both," Baron admitted. "What in the world possessed you to go up against him with nothing but a cane?"

"You looked like you were in trouble."

"I was handling it."

"He had you hauled five inches off the ground," Haru pointed out.

"I was about to handle it," Baron amended.

Haru hurried over to his side, almost tripping over her hair as she overtook him. "You could just say thank you, you know." She raised an eyebrow, grinning. "A little bit of gratitude never killed anyone."

He halted. "You're right. Where are my manners? Thank you, Miss Haru, for coming to my aid when I needed it." He raised a hand to his forehead, as if to tip a hat her way, and paused when his fingers grasped thin air.

Haru giggled, and then hastily muffled it at Baron's surprise. "Sorry," she said between her grin. "I just wasn't expecting that." She mimed a clumsy curtsy in return. "Then you are welcome, good sir."

"Yeah, yeah, everyone's welcome." Muta padded between them, hurrying onward along the passageway. "Now can we get going? In case you two knuckleheads have forgotten, we're meant to be running for our lives. Or your life, anyway, Baron. Yer the one they want, after all."

"Muta."

"Actually, he has a point," Baron admitted.

"Yeah, funny how that happens sometimes," Muta said.

"By now you must have realised how dangerous it is to be travelling with me," Baron continued, ignoring Muta's snide gloating at the side. "You could have stayed at the inn, asked Hiromi or Tsuge to show you to the capital, even asked the guards for their help…"

"And?" Haru asked. "Your point is?"

"Why didn't you?"

"I promised to return the satchel to you after you took me to the lantern festival," Haru said. "And I keep my promises."

"Haru…"

She slowed, and glanced back to him. There was clear confusion in his eyes.

"Why me?"

Haru was flummoxed for a moment, floored by the unexpected question. In the end, she chose the only answer that clearly came to mind. "Because you're the one who found the tower. You're the first new face I've seen in… well, ever." She offered a small smile. "That has to count for something, right?"

"That was luck, Haru. Coincidence. It's not a smart way to choose your travelling companions–"

"So what? Are you saying I was stupid for choosing to trust you?"

"I wouldn't use the word stupid–"

"But you're thinking it."

"Perhaps reckless, or naïve. There must be millions of people in this kingdom alone, and I just happened to be the one to stumble upon your tower, so I fail to see how that makes me any better than anyone else–"

"Well, you're here now, aren't you?" Haru retorted. She had rounded on Baron in abrupt frustration. "So maybe my decision was reckless and naïve and stupid, but you're here now. Why are you so afraid to be trusted?"

Baron stared back, and for once he seemed to find no answer.

The ground rattled under Muta's paws, and light began to flicker back along the tunnel they'd travelled. Approaching voices echoed along the walls. "Hey, guys; it looks like we've got company!"


	8. A Close Shave

Baron snapped his head back. His breath hitched as he spotted the looming shadows of the guard. "They've found us. Haru – run!" He grabbed Haru's hair, bundling it up and dumping it into her arms, pushing her into a sprint as he did. "Stay in front of me," he ordered. "They haven't seen you yet."

"What about you?" she called back.

Baron laughed. "It's a little too late to be worrying about me!"

They fled out of the tunnel and out into fresh air – and almost off a 50-metre drop. Baron grabbed Haru's shoulders and they skidded to a hasty halt.

"You took us the wrong way, ya moron!" Muta yowled. "We've hit a dead end!"

"There's a ladder," Baron snapped. He pointed to a flimsy rope ladder hanging off the edge, the bottom of which marked out a dusty path to yet another tunnel. "So if we could just–"

"No offense, but I don't think we have enough time to go clambering down that," Haru said. "Here." She shoved her cane into Baron's hands – who looked a little bemused at the abrupt action – and stepped up to the edge. The canyon below them seemed to be man-made, the result of an old, but working dam, and as a result there were plenty of beams and water wheels and even a somewhat small rickety aqueduct crossing through the gorge.

Haru threw her hair out through the air, and secured it around one of the beams. She tugged at it, reassured herself that it was in place, and then seized Muta.

"How is that even holding…?" Baron murmured. "Surely it can't be tied in place – HARU!" He jumped forward to try to grab Haru as she leapt off the edge, but she was already gone and he was left with nothing but her cane. "Haru!"

Against all logic, the golden hair held, and Haru landed on the spindly wooden aqueduct on the far side of the gorge. She dropped Muta and gave a little cheer, waving at Baron with reckless enthusiasm.

Heart still in mouth, Baron waved weakly back. "Maybe the cat was right," he murmured. "Maybe the world does need to get ready for her." His musings were cut short by the cacophony of the guards arriving at the tunnel's exit and his subsequent outnumbering. He started to back away, and then remembered the death-drop behind him.

He attempted a charismatic smile as the captain pushed forward. "Ah, Captain. What a surprise meeting you here… Tell me, do you visit this part of the kingdom often?" His smile died as a dozen swords were bared his way.

"I've been waiting a long time for this," the Captain growled.

"You've had a really boring life then," Baron said.

The Captain snarled and lashed out with his sword.

Baron ducked and, more out of instinct than actual plan, retaliated with what he had in hand – which, at that exact moment, was the cane. He slammed it up into the Captain's jaw, sending the man's teeth rattling and giving Baron enough time to hit him upside the head with the cane's hook. The Captain slumped to the ground like a sack of potatoes and there was a hallowed silence as the guards digested what had just occurred.

"I'll be honest, I wasn't expecting that to actually work," Baron admitted. He eyed the cane with newfound appreciation, glancing now and then back to the unconscious captain, and so when there was the sound of movement behind him, he spun round with the cane poised to attack. "Ah-hah…?"

His mind registered almost too late that it wasn't an overzealous guard attacking him, and was in fact the Captain's crow. He swung the cane at the bird, missing but forcing it to fly off-course.

It came back around at him, and he retaliated again with the cane. "I wish I could say this was the strangest thing I've ever done, but it hardly scratches the surface of the day I've had!" he cried as he lashed out with the cane. This time it contacted the bird, but it grabbed the staff with its talons and threw it off the edge.

"Hey! That's my mother's cane!" Haru could be heard to shout.

Baron ducked just in time to avoid being attacked by the crow. "I'm a little busy right now!" His foot caught at the edge, and he balanced precariously above the 50-metre drop. The crow went in for another attack.

"Baron!"

Golden hair wrapped itself around Baron's hand, and he was given but a moment to register it as Haru's hair. "Oh, no…"

"Jump!"

He turned and, against all his instincts save for reckless trust, leapt. For several heart-stopping moments he was plummeting, and then the hair went taut and he was swinging through the air instead. He landed heavily, stumbling a little as his feet hit the ground.

"Are you okay?" Haru called down. She started to hoist back up her hair, but paused as the water running along the aqueduct picked up pace from its earlier slow trickle and began to race past her bare feet. There was a low rumble from the dam itself.

"Hey, I'm not an expert with dams," Muta said, "but I'm pretty sure it shouldn't be making that noise."

Haru glanced guiltily down at the rickety aqueduct that was struggling to take her weight, and then at the dam it connected to. "Perhaps…" she said, slowly, "this was a bad idea…"

The joint between aqueduct and dam cracked. A jet of water shot out from the opening and now new fractures were breaking into place as the pressure surpassed what the dam could take.

"Move, Chicky!"

Haru turned and ran along the tiny aqueduct, skidding along where the water threatened to upset her footing. At this point, the aqueduct decided that it wasn't made for this kind of abuse, and the wooden stilts holding it up began to give way. It tilted dangerously beneath her.

"Haru, jump!"

She saw Baron running out alongside the aqueduct, and blind faith overtook caution. Grabbing Muta by the scruff of his neck, she leapt off the splintering waterway. For a rare, surreal second, she was flying… and then gravity took over and she was falling, landing in Baron's arms.

"Nice catch. Could… could you put me down now though?"

"No time!"

"No time? No time until what?" There was a thunderous crack and the dam buckled. "Never mind! Keep running!"

The dam burst open and a sea of water erupted out, engulfing the guards, engulfing the crow, and flooding out towards Haru and Baron. The wave smashed into a rock formation behind them, and it gave way under the weight of the water.

"Run faster, idiot!" Muta yelped.

"Perhaps if I dropped a little excess baggage, I could!" Baron yelled back.

The shadow of the toppling rocks loomed over them, and Baron ran for the only opening he could see ahead of them – a tunnel. At the last moment, he skidded into the opening, grabbing the cane that had been swept in with the water, and the rock thudded heavily down over the entrance, blocking their exit, their light, and most of the water.

Not all, however.

Baron lowered Haru back to her feet – dropping Muta in the process – and they pushed on through the tunnel in near-complete darkness. It sloped upwards and then came to an abrupt dead-end where a rockfall had blocked their way.

"There has to be another way out," Haru cried. "Perhaps there's another opening, or a weak spot we missed–"

Baron lifted her up onto a ledge and, as a belated afterthought, grudgingly threw Muta up with her. "Stay there – see if you can find another path through," he ordered, before dropping back down to the ground. The water was already up to his knees and rising fast, forcing him to wade through in the darkness.

Haru struck at the rockfall with her cane, trying to pry the rocks loose with her stick. Nothing moved.

"Chicky, that's not doing anything–"

"I have to try!"

Baron hoisted himself up onto the ledge, out of the water that was already up to his chest. "It's no use," he panted. "I can't see anything."

Haru pushed herself off the ledge, but Baron pulled her back out of the water before she could sink past his reach.

"Hey, there's no point," he said. He gently swept back the sodden hair from her face. "It's pitch black down there."

"What else are we meant to do?" Haru snapped. "Just wait here to drown?" Her voice hiked at the end and now the water was lapping at her feet, tickling her toes as if to remind her of its steady advance. Panic began to rise in her chest.

"Haru–"

"This is all my fault," she sobbed. "She was right; I never should have left…"

Baron reached out in the darkness, found Haru's shoulders, and gently let her lean against him. "Haru–"

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry, Baron."

"Humbert," he murmured.

Haru blinked back the beginning of tears. "What?"

"My real name is Humbert von Gikkingen," he said. He hesitated, as if the admission weighed heavily on him. "Someone might as well know."

Muta sniggered. "Yeah, I'd stick with 'Baron' if I were you."

Baron scowled, but Haru released a sudden peal of laughter that seemed alien under their circumstances. The humour left as quickly as it had come, and she dropped her head against his shoulder. There was a slight shake running through her. "If we're swapping stories," she whispered, "then I have magic hair that glows when I sing."

"What?"

Haru paused, blinked, and seemed to miss Baron's disbelief entirely. "I have… magic hair that glows when I sing," she could only repeat, and her mind stumbled upon a crazy, but just-possible idea. The water rose up to their chins, and Haru took one last, desperate breath.

" _Flower, gleam and glow. Let your power shine–_ "

The water filled the last pocket of air, but it had been enough. From the roots of her hair, golden light spilled out and flooded the water in a shimmering glow. And in the newfound light, her hair could be seen to be pulled towards a section of the tunnel where another rockfall had blocked their path.

A weak current, but a current nonetheless, where the water had to be escaping through.

It was worth a shot.

It was their only shot.

Baron kicked off from the side and swam down to the cave-in. He tore at the rocks, and now he could feel the water seeping through the gaps as he widened the opening. Haru swam down to his side, and even Muta was adding his paw to the attempt.

The light began to fade, now no longer maintained by Haru's song, and the darkness crept back into place, somehow accentuated by the cold embrace of the water.

Baron's hand broke through, and he could feel cool, dry air on the other side. The rockfall crumbled at the abrupt break, and it collapsed forward. Suddenly the world was tumbling about them and Baron was granted a moment's breath before they were unceremoniously dumped into a river.

He bobbed back up to the surface, snatching up another live-saving gasp of air. To one side, he could see Muta floating along the river, attempting to grab purchase at the shoreline, but there was no sign of his companion.

"Haru? Haru!"

At last he spotted a glimmer of golden hair caught along the bank. He dove down, following the golden trail until he found Haru at the end of it, unconscious and dragged down by the weight of her own hair.

He kicked off from the riverbed, hauling Haru back up to the surface. She broke through the water and into air, spluttering, but very definitely alive. "Haru!"

"We made it!" she gasped. "We're alive!"

Baron helped her to the shoreline, which she hauled herself onto in a mess of hair and gangly limbs. He watched the golden hair stream out of the river as its owner went running for dry land, and couldn't suppress the belated shock from finally seeping into his system.

"Her hair glows," he murmured. He eyed the ongoing locks as if expecting it to burst into light again. "It really glows…"

Muta eventually clawed his way onto the shoreline, looking not unlike a giant, half-drowned furball. "Ya really hung up on this, aren't you?" He shook his fur in an attempt to dry off, and most of the water ended up hitting Baron in the face – intentionally, the latter suspected. "Relax, it's not gonna eat ya."

"Why does it glow though? And why when she sings? Does it work for any song? It's just – ah!" Halfway on pulling himself out of the water, pain shot up along his arm and he collapsed, face down, onto the grassy bank. "Today keeps getting better and better," he grumbled mutinously.

Haru heaved the last few strands of hair free from the river, and dropped it down onto the grass with a solid _plump_. "Hey, are you okay?"

Baron pushed himself up to inspect the cut that ran along his arm. Now the river was no longer washing away the blood, an angry red line was beginning to swell. "It looks like I caught myself on some of the rocks upon escape," he said. He prodded unhelpfully at the arm. It responded, unsurprisingly, with more pain. "It'll be fine–"

He stopped as Haru abruptly knelt down to examine the injury. Her fingers danced lightly over the cut, and after several moments she seemed to find the answer she was looking for. She grinned. "For what it's worth, my hair doesn't _just_ glow."

ooOoo

In the falling twilight of the forest, Louise found the exit of the Sitting Duck's tunnels, hidden in the hollow trunk of an ancient tree. If she'd had any doubts that the pub's landlady had been leading her on, they had dissipated upon seeing the faded yellow duck painted on the trap door.

She sat a little way out, hidden in the shadow of a tree as she waited for Haru and Baron to make their appearance. Her hands had stopped shaking, but her shoulders were hunched as she fended off the cold.

"Come on, come on," she murmured. She ran her hands along her arms, as if to massage the goosebumps away. "What's keeping them so long?"

At last, light spilled out into the forest. Louise turned, expecting to see people clambering out of the underground passageway, but instead there was a blue portal growing in the middle of the forest. She leapt back behind the tree, just before the portal opened and several individuals jumped out of its depths.

She peeked round. The newcomers consisted of cats, one of which was the tan feline from the Sitting Duck, although now walking on its hind feet.

"It definitely was the princess," the cat was saying. It addressed its remarks to a tall grey cat in a dark purple robe and spectacles. Certainly not a cat from this world. "Her name was Haru and she had long golden hair – it had to be her!"

"Natoru, this is far from the first false alarm you've raised," the grey cat monotoned. He didn't look impressed as he regarded the dark, dull forest about him. "After all, plenty of human girls the princess' age are called Haru, and long hair is not uncommon."

"This was her, I'm telling you! Plus, she was with the baroness' son – and then the baroness turned up looking for her."

"Hm, the baroness, you say? Perhaps the King should be informed of this, after all… Guards!" A selection of khaki-coloured cats snapped to haphazard attention. "Spread out and search for the princess."

Realising she was under the threat of imminent discovery, Louise turned and found her way blocked by a dark-haired man. She stepped back and looked up into the bright blue eyes of a familiar face.

"Hello, Mother. Looking for something?"

"Nothing that would interest you." Louise kicked out at the man, sending him doubling over, and ran. She could hear shouting behind her – first the man, and then the cats – and kept on running.

Haru.

They were after Haru.

And that was the one thing she couldn't allow.


	9. Twisted Tales

"So, you're being strangely cryptic as you wrap your magic hair around my injured arm."

Haru merely grinned a little ruefully and continued on with her task. "Just… promise you won't freak out, okay?"

Baron eyed the hair with renewed unease. "Funnily enough, that doesn't set my heart at ease." He leant forward, bringing his face dangerously close to Haru's. "Why, exactly, would I need to promise that – ah!"

Haru pulled her hair tight around the wound with a decisive tug. "Just sit still unless you want me to make a mess of this."

"That hurt," Baron accused.

"You'll be fine." Haru glanced down to the arm in her hands, and her bluster seemed to fade away. Her shoulders dropped. She exhaled slowly.

As the silence settled about them, Baron's arm began to prickle at the inactivity. "Is… something meant to be happening?"

"I'm sorry. It's just… I've never…" and here Haru struggled for words. "You're the first person I've ever shown this to."

At Haru's feet, Muta grunted. "What? Don't me and yer mam count?"

"Apart from you two, of course," Haru amended. She returned her gaze to Baron, and now he could see her nerves playing clearly in her eyes. "Please don't freak out."

"I won't. I promise."

After several laden moments, Haru seemed to find the sincerity in Baron's words and her grip on his arm loosened. She spared him a soft smile. "Okay. Don't worry; I know what I'm doing."

"That makes one of us," Baron murmured.

He didn't miss the momentary smirk flitting over Haru's face at that. She closed her eyes, and a gentle calmness seeped through her. She began to recite the song that Baron had only caught a snippet of back in the flooded tunnel.

" _Flower, gleam and glow,_

" _Let your power shine._

" _Make the clock reverse,_

" _Bring back what once was mine_."

At the first quiet note, the roots of her hair started to glow. It spiralled down through her hair, slowly at first but gaining speed with every moment until it was a rushing river of gold.

" _Heal what has been hurt,_

" _Change the Fates' design._

" _Save what has been lost,_

" _Bring back what once was mine_."

The whole clearing was now alight with the glow of the hair. Baron had to resist the urge to squirm as it reached the hair covering his arm; only Haru's reassuring hold prevented him from bolting entirely.

" _What once was mine…_ "

As the last notes of the song faded, so did the light. The forest was dropped back into evening twilight and Haru's eyes seemed to glimmer as she raised her gaze to Baron.

Tentatively, Baron untangled his arm, and let the hair drop away. The skin where the rocks had nicked it was now smooth with no sign of the injury that should have at least left scarring. He flexed his hand, as if expecting phantom pain to rise up, and then – when that didn't happen – prodded it.

"The wound…" he said, eventually. He inhaled carefully, and pointedly didn't meet Haru's gaze. "It's gone…"

"Baron–"

"Look at that; it's really gone…."

"You said you wouldn't freak out."

"Freak out?" His voice hiked a little, and he started to rub at the arm, as if he could brush away the remaining magic. He didn't even seem to be aware of the action. "What could possibly make you think I'm freaking out?"

"Perhaps the fact that you're having trouble stringing more than two words together without hyperventilating?" Haru offered. "Look, it's okay – it's just magic–"

"Magic hair, yes, I can see that. Haru, I know you may not be well-acquainted with the outside world but, for the rest of us? Magic hair is not that common. Or even heard of. Magic hair," he murmured, and Haru suspected the echo had slipped past subconsciously. " _Why_ do you have magic hair?"

Haru grabbed the arm he was rubbing at, bringing the action to a halt. "Baron," she ordered. "It's okay. And yes, I know magic hair is kind of a big deal." She sighed, her shoulders sagging. "Why do you think my mother and I hid away in that tower all these years?"

"Your mother–"

"Doesn't have magic hair," Haru said. "It's just me."

"Why–"

"We don't know. Mother says that I was born with it. We don't know why. Maybe it was a curse or a blessing or just some… funny twist of fate. All we do know is that once people discovered what it could do, they wanted it for themselves. Could you imagine what people would pay to stay young and healthy forever? I'd be a freak show, a medical curiosity, a panacea for the rich and spoiled," she said, echoing the warnings her mother had spoken so often. "We had to run away."

"Maybe you could keep it secret," Baron offered. "If you cut it short, no one would spare your hair a second glance, no one would have to know…" He trailed off, his gaze running over the sea of golden hair that snaked around them. "Unless… you _can't_ cut it off?"

"They tried when I was a baby," Haru said. "Well… my father tried." She ran a hand behind her ear and looped out a short lock of dark hair. "When it's cut, it turns brown and loses its power, but all that magic has to go somewhere. It backfired onto him and killed him."

"I'm sorry–"

She gave a small smile. "It's… okay. I never knew him, but it made it clear I was stuck with this power." She tucked the loose strand back behind her ear, but her fingers and mind lingered on the subject. "As for keeping it secret…" and her gaze flickered to his healed arm, "well, I'm doing a really good job of that, aren't I?"

She chuckled weakly, but Baron didn't have the heart to join her. Guilt flooded him.

Her eyes softened and she looked away. "Anyway, that's why she never let me–" She hesitated, and then amended that statement with, "That's why I never left…"

"You never left that tower," Baron gently finished. "Are you going to go back?"

"No. How could I after all this? It's only been a single day, and already it's clear that the world is so much… larger, and so much more… _beautiful_ than I ever imagined. There's so many places and so many people and I've only just started scratching the surface. How could I go back to that tower now? But," she murmured, and the fight went out of her form as she dropped her head into her arms, "it's complicated…"

"For what it's worth," Baron said quietly, "it wasn't your fault."

"What?"

"The guards, the cave, the near-drowning," he said. "It wasn't your fault. If anything, it's mine. It's me they were after, after all."

Haru offered him a rueful smile. "Well, in that case I'll have to leave you behind for the guards next time." She shook her head and leant back, pointedly taking the moment to study her travelling companion. "So…" she hummed eventually, "Humbert von Gikkingen, huh? No 'Baron' in there?"

"There used to be."

After a long moment of silence, Haru sidled up to him. "Seriously, you can't just say something like that and leave me in the dark. Come on; I told you about my hair – it's your turn now."

"Then let me put your mind at ease and tell you that my hair is entirely normal."

Haru nudged him. "That's not what I meant, and you know it."

"Well, it was worth a try."

Haru gave him a pointed look, and he sighed in defeat.

"There was a… princess – this was before my time," he added quickly, even as Haru began to raise an eyebrow. "The princess of this kingdom, actually, and the daughter of my mother's childhood friend. In fact, my mother helped with the birth…"

"Your mother knew the queen?"

"The queen wasn't born into royalty," Baron said. "She was a commoner, but she and the prince fell in love." He gave a bittersweet smile. "Apparently, the queen was the one to introduce my parents; my mother, a miller's daughter, with my father, a young baron."

"It sounds like it wasn't always such a bad life," Haru said softly.

"It wasn't," he admitted. A wistful note had crept into his voice at the fond memories. "At least, for the short time it lasted. We were happy, or so I thought. And then the princess was born."

"What was wrong with the princess?"

"Nothing. It was in my mother that the problem lay. Somehow, for some reason, she grew jealous of the child and stole her. She stole her best friend's baby, and for what? What could possess a person to throw everything away like that? Her life, her husband, her sons…"

Haru gently reached out to him, covering his hand with her own. "Whatever her reasons, I'm sure it wasn't because of you."

"I didn't say it was."

"No, but I can hear the blame in your voice. Her actions were not your fault."

He glanced to her, and then away. "To a three-year-old, it was impossible to understand without thinking that some part of the blame must have been on me. Of course, after that, there was an uproar; the king and queen sent out as many soldiers and guards to find my mother and the princess, but they were already gone. My family – what was left of my family – was dropped into disgrace, and our lands and title removed. Everything changed after that."

"I'm… I'm so sorry…"

"Things weren't so bad," Baron said. He attempted a half-hearted smile. "My father was still around, even if he wasn't always the most practical of people. He was kind though – never speaking a harsh word against my mother, even after everything – and the local people came to tolerate us, even with our history. As far as childhoods go, it was far from the worst."

"If that's the case, then why're you here?" Muta demanded. He glared at the two humans when they turned to him, surprised after having forgotten he was there. "What? Aren't I allowed to ask questions too? If it wasn't all that bad, then why're you a thief? What, did ya get bored of your 'far from the worst' life?"

"My father died when I was fifteen," Baron said. "A stray cat ran out in front of his horse and spooked it. After that, my brother and I were left to fend for ourselves."

"You have a brother?" Haru asked.

"A twin, only a few minutes older than me. Non-identical," he added, "but still alike. My brother… well, he was angry at my mother and life for everything that had been taken from him. While my father was around, he was kept in check, but after that, he decided he'd had enough. He turned to crime."

"And… you?"

"He was my brother," Baron said. "He was all the family I had left, and he was so angry and bitter with the world… I couldn't leave him. At first, it was simply little things – we stole bits here and there to keep ourselves afloat while we travelled – oh, and the things we saw. There are kingdoms where it snows all year round, with waterfalls frozen in mid-fall; jungles with the strangest creatures you'll ever lay eyes on; islands that move in the night… For a while, that was enough for my brother, but eventually he was drawn back to this kingdom, to Corona, and the thefts became bigger. They became more dangerous.

"It was a slow change, at first," he said. "So slow, I didn't notice it. But he began to steal more than we needed to survive – weapons, magic, things that could really hurt people. Even when I did notice the change, I didn't want to. I didn't want to see how we had gone from petty thieves to feared criminals. But then a theft went wrong. A building went up in flames, full of innocent people, and when I learnt that my brother had set it as a distraction during our burglary…"

"You left," Haru finished.

"I had never meant things to get so out of hand. I thought that, if I could just stay with him, keep him under control, then I could stop him from hurting anyone. I was wrong." His gaze turned to the forest about them, but Haru could sense he wasn't seeing the trees. "After that, it was impossible to return to an honest life with the reputation my brother and I had garnered, so I went back to petty thievery. I guess some habits die hard."

"Ya stole a crown. How is that petty thievery?"

Baron chuckled ruefully. "That wasn't my idea; it was Hiromi and Tsuge's. I never imagined it'd get so out of hand though, or I might have thought twice before agreeing to it."

"Right. But if you'd never agreed to it, you'd never have met me," Haru said with a teasing grin. "And wouldn't that have been just a crying shame?"

"It would," Baron replied softly. "I am glad I have met you, Haru."

Haru blinked. The sincerity in his voice threw her. "Really? Even after I hit you with a cane? _Twice_?"

"Yes."

"Even though I hid the crown from you and that's why Tsuge nearly started a bar fight with you?"

"Yes."

"Even though–"

"Haru." He covered Haru's mouth with his fingers, stilling her questions. "I'm glad to have met you."

She grinned around his hand. "I'm just a little surprised, is all. But, for what it's worth, I'm very glad you're the one who found my tower. I couldn't think of a better guide."

"A better guide would have got you to the capital already without being nearly drowned in the process," Baron pointed out.

"Fine. Then I wouldn't want any other guide. Better?"

"I'll take it."

Muta broke into a coughing fit, and suddenly both Haru and Baron realised they'd steadily been leaning closer to one another during their conversation, their faces dangerously nearing. At the reminder of Muta's presence, they abruptly straightened up, breaking whatever that moment had been.

"Well, I should… I should get some more firewood," Baron said. He stumbled to his feet, nearly stepping on Muta's tail in the process. "Sorry – sorry."

"Hey."

At Haru's soft voice, Baron paused, half in the motion of carefully stepping past her hair. "Yes?"

"Humbert really isn't that bad a name, you know."

"No, it isn't," Baron agreed. "It was my mother's choice; it means 'bright warrior'. But… it's not a name I can live up to right now. With 'Baron', I've always felt closer to my family – to what my family should have been."

"For what it's worth, I think both names suit you perfectly."

"Well, you'd be the first to think so. But, thank you." He offered a gentle smile, and turned back to the moonlit forest.

When he had gone, Haru glared down at the cat at her feet. "What was that coughing fit about?"

Muta grinned. "Must've got a furball stuck in my throat."

"You know, talking of backstories," Haru said, "you still haven't told me yours."

"Geez, kid, you're never gonna give up, are you?"

"I'm curious."

"Look, I got on the wrong side of a couple of cats, that's all. Decided it'd be better if I stayed out of the way for a while."

"What kind of cats did you upset to make you stay in a tower for nearly twenty years? Is there a cat mafia we don't know about?"

Muta sniggered. "There is, but they're not the ones I annoyed. Anyway, that Cat King always was an idiot."

Haru stared. "There's a Cat King?"

"Oh, yeah."

"And you…"

"Might have broken a few laws along the way. In my defence, the Cat King was a moron. Probably still is, if he's even still on the throne."

Haru leant down to examine Muta. "You're a criminal?"

"And?"

"And you gave Baron so much grief for being a thief?"

"And?"

"You're unbelievable."

"Haru?"

Haru froze at the familiar voice, and then quickly rose to her feet, shoving Muta back and dropping her hair over the log to hide him. "Mother? How did you find me?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heya, sorry for running late today, folks; I've had bday shenanigans the last couple of days, and then suddenly ffnet refused to connect. Better late than never though! :D


	10. A Mother's Love

Louise stepped out into the moonlight, relief and fear both clear in her sky-blue eyes. "You leave quite the impression, Haru. All I had to do was ask round a few pubs until someone remembered you. Are you okay?" She reached out to Haru, taking her daughter's cheek in her hand and examining her face. "I never should have left you alone... How did he find you? Where is he now?"

"Who?"

"The man who kidnapped you!" Her mother brought out a familiar satchel and tugged loose the wanted poster from its depths. Baron's face – or a recognisable approximation – stared out at her. "The thief!"

Haru gently took the poster from her mother. "He… He didn't kidnap me," she said eventually. "I… I ran away. I'm sorry–"

"Why?" All the anger, all the ire that Haru had been expecting at her confession was nowhere to be seen in her mother. Instead there was only sadness and tiredness. Somehow that was worse than all the rage in the world. "You were safe, and happy, at least I thought you were – I was going to bring you paint for your eighteenth… Did I really do such a terrible job?"

"No! No, you did a great job–"

"Then why…?"

"Why do you think? I've spent my whole life in that tower, looking out through that window, dreaming of what the world is like. And then Baron… fell into the tower, into my life, and I thought that this could be my chance. My only chance. He's taking me to see the lantern festival–"

"No."

Haru halted, her wanderlust draining away at her mother's answer. "What?"

"No, Haru; we're going home. It's too dangerous to be out here anymore."

"Why? You told me that the world was a dark and dangerous place–"

"And isn't it? You've been through the forest, through a pub of criminals, chased after by guards, and goodness knows what else. And that's before anyone discovers what your hair can do – how long will it be before you see someone in pain and reach out with your magic? How long will it take after that for word to get out of what you are – of what you can do?"

"I…" Haru fought for an answer, but hadn't she done just that? At the first sign of injury – a shallow cut – hadn't she forgotten everything her mother had taught her and revealed her powers? But Baron was different. He had to be. "My hair is a gift, Mother; what good is it to anyone hidden away in that tower?"

"What good is it if you're being exploited for it? Haru, I didn't want to scare you, but there are people out there who are already looking for you – who knew of you before we had to hide away in that tower and who know what you can do – and know you're here, somewhere. We need to go – now."

Louise moved as if to lead Haru away, but Haru twisted away. "Wait, let me at least tell Baron."

"No."

"But he–"

"He's a thief, Haru. He's not to be trusted."

"He's my friend!"

"Can't you see he's using you?" Her mother whipped out the crown from the satchel. Anger finally lined her voice. "If you're lucky, this is all he's after. What did you promise? To return it once he took you to the lantern festival?"

"I was only going to return it once I got back to the tower," Haru protested. "I had everything under control–"

"No, you didn't! You have no idea what you're dealing with here! One of the people looking for you is his brother – what if he's working alongside him? What if this is a trap?"

"His brother is looking for me?"

"Haru, you're not listening to me – what if this is a trap?"

"It's not."

"And what makes you so sure?"

"I know him, Mother; I know that Baron would never do anything like that. He…" And here the word she wanted to say stuck in her throat, and she stuttered for a moment. "He cares for me, I think. Anyway, he and his brother went their separate ways; there's no way Baron could be working with him."

Sounds in the depth of the forest echoed through the trees, and fresh fear ran through her mother. "I don't have time for this. Haru, I can't make you come home, but take this." She pushed across the satchel, now with the poster and crown inside. "Give him this, and get away from him. Whatever you do, don't trust him."

"Where are you going?"

"The people who are looking for you have already seen me; if I stay any longer they might find us both. You need to leave now." She drew her daughter into an abrupt, desperate hug. "Oh, I wish I had the time to explain everything, but please believe me when I say that everything I did was to protect you. Be careful."

She melted out of the embrace and disappeared back into the shadows of the forest, leaving Haru lingering lonelily at the edge of the clearing. Haru sank slowly down to her knees. Her knuckles were white as they gripped the satchel, trembling as they felt the crown within.

"Hey… Chicky…?"

"Not now, Muta," Haru whispered. "And don't mention this to Baron. Any of it."

"Hey, can I ask you something?" As if summoned by his name, Baron's voice echoed through the forest. Haru stuffed the satchel beneath the log. "Does your hair have side-effects?" His silhouette appeared at the edge of the clearing, his form outlined by the dying fire. "My hair isn't going to start glowing too, is it? Because that would be a really unfortunate fate for a…" He trailed off as he spotted Haru kneeling down at the edge of the clearing, almost entirely cast in shadow. "Haru, are you okay?"

"Oh!" She stumbled to her feet, only to find her legs were still shaking. Baron dropped the logs he was carrying to catch her arm and steady her. "Thanks. I just… I thought I saw something out there, I guess."

"You look pale. Did something happen while I was away?"

"No. I…" For a moment, she considered telling Baron the truth – the whole truth – but the words lodged themselves in her throat. Her mind returned to the satchel and its bejewelled contents, and she feared that if she started telling even part of the truth, then her mouth would run away with her and she'd reveal the rest. And for all her claims of trust, that nagging doubt that her mother could still be proven right prevailed.

"I think there's something watching us," she settled on. "Can we find somewhere else to stop for the night?"

Baron turned his gaze to the forest, and for a moment Haru thought he was going to dismiss her request. But then he looked back to her, and the moment passed. "Sure. Better safe than sorry, right?" He smothered the half-dead fire with his boot, rendering what little was left into ashes.

"I'm sorry, I just–"

"It's fine," he promised. "Whatever you've seen has clearly spooked you. Are you okay to keep moving?"

"Yeah, I'm okay."

"We won't be able to make it out of the forest tonight, but…" He paused as he scuffed out the last remains of the fire, and the clearing dropped back into dappled moonlight. "But if you want somewhere safe, I think I know a place we won't be found. Pork pie?" He retrieved a small bundle of food from his jacket pocket, a little squished after travelling, but not too much the worse for wear.

"Did you steal that from the Sitting Duck?"

"Are you saying you're not going to take one?"

Haru glared, but then her stomach took the opportunity to remind her that she hadn't eaten since that morning. She grudgingly picked out half a sausage roll and pushed forward through the forest. "When we're all done here, you'd better go back and pay for this."

"Better yet, I'll bring them back the crown," Baron promised.

"Ah, well; I'm not asking for miracles."

"You really don't believe me, do you?"

"Considering that you've just stolen from your own friends, I think my scepticism is valid."

"It's not theft if you're borrowing from friends. Anyway, they run a pub. I doubt they'll even notice it's missing." Baron paused, and then added, "Well, we are talking about Hiromi here, so perhaps she will. But I think I can live with that." He offered a feline grin and his hand as they came to an abrupt ascent along the half-formed forest path. "Now you're finished berating me over my meal choices, shall we press on?"

Haru finished the stolen sausage roll and reluctantly took the proffered hand, allowing him to steady her as they clambered up the track. She glanced back into the shadows of the forest.

"Haru?"

"I'm fine." She turned back to Baron and forced a smile. "Let's go."

ooOoo

Louise stumbled down the hollow of a ravine, the sound of pursuit hot on her heels. She slipped the last couple of feet in the muddied slopes and came to an uneasy halt in a small stream. She grabbed one of the saplings lining the brook's banks before her legs could buckle beneath her.

"Giving up already, Mother?"

She looked up. "Some of us aren't as young as we used to be." She straightened, even as her limbs shook and the water soaked up through her ruined shoes. She met her son's cold gaze. "I thought I had raised you to be better than this, Auberon. You had such potential for goodness – and now look at you. I've heard of what became of you and Humbert. Thieves. Criminals. Wanted men. When did you become so heartless?"

Her son descended the gully, taking his time as she spoke. "Well, that's the kicker, isn't it? You didn't raise us. No. Instead, you decided to run off with some mewling little baby, leaving your own family – your own _sons_ – to fend for themselves, while you raised a _princess_ –"

As he neared, Louise stepped back. "If you knew why–"

"I KNOW WHY!" His voice echoed back across the ravine, and when it faded, Auberon continued, his voice calmer, almost dangerously idle. "After years and years of wondering, I finally discovered the truth. The cats told me exactly what had happened."

Louise glanced behind him to where the cats had appeared at the top of the gully.

"Hey, hey, don't look at them." Auberon snapped his fingers before his mother's face. "After eighteen years of neglecting your own flesh and blood, I think you owe your _real_ family at least five minutes of your precious time."

"Whatever they told you, Auberon, you can't trust them–"

"And I can trust _you_? The mother who abandoned her own children?" He tutted. "You lost the right to lecture me on morality a long time ago." He leant closer. "Or will you deny the fact that you left us for the sake of some princess?"

"I did it to save her, I had to–"

"No. You didn't. You should have just let things be. Was she worth it? Was she worth what you did to our family?"

Louise was silent. And then, "I didn't realise things would get so dire. I'm sorry–"

"It's too late for that! Spare your condolences, Mother."

One of the cats – the bespectacled one – joined them, pushing his glasses back up his face as he regarded their quarry. "As charming as this family reunion is, time is of the essence. Duke," he said, turning to Auberon, "the King grows ever more impatient. You promised us a way to find the Princess."

Louise turned to her son. "Why work with them?" she demanded. "They're the reason I had to take Haru in the first place – the reason I had to stay in hiding all these years."

"Funny thing, Mother, but I don't really care what happens to the Princess. If it hadn't been for her, none of this would have happened – if you hadn't taken pity on another woman's child, we'd still be a family. And if the Cat King has promised riches for my efforts, then that makes this all the sweeter. Now, where is the Princess?"

"As if I'd tell you."

"I'm sorry, you seem to have mistaken that for a request." He opened his palm to reveal a golden ring set with a large blue gemstone. "Baroness Louise von Gikkingen, your name belongs to me now."

Her name appeared in spindly black writing above the ring, swaying in the air before plummeting down and sinking into the blue stone's shimmering surface.

"Name magic?" his mother snapped. "Where did you get such a thing from?"

"Oh, I simply borrowed it. Now, Mother, where is the Princess?"

She stiffened as she felt the answer bubble up through her and wrangle its way to her lips. She pushed the words aside. "Fight me."

The cat glanced to Auberon. "I thought you said this magic was infallible."

"My mother has been using the magic of the Princess to keep her alive all this time," Auberon replied, "so you'll have to forgive me if the multiple magicks don't mix. Regardless, she'll have to give at some point. So, Mother; where is the Princess? An answer this time, please."

The demand for the truth burned on her tongue and filled her head until she couldn't stop the words from forming. "In the forest."

"The forest is a large place–" the cat started.

"Patience, Natori," Auberon said. "All good things come to those who wait. Now, Mother, perhaps you'd be so good as to show us exactly where the Princess is? _Now_."

One shaky footstep. And then another. Try as she might, her limbs were working on automatic, heading back to the glade where she had last seen her daughter.


	11. Briar Rose Cottage

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Sorry folks for the very late update! 2020 is a very chaotic year and honestly this just got buried beneath the train wreck that has been the last few months (as well as taking on NaNoWriMo & getting very distracted with a new musical) but I am committed to finishing this story! This chapter is fairly short, but sweet. Enjoy!

In the gentle moonlight, the cottage before them took on an almost ethereal quality.

It was squat and sturdily built, stone walls and wooden timbers still standing after what looked like years of neglect, with only the thatched roof bearing the worst of the damages. One side of the cottage had been built against and into a huge tree, and a soft gurgle marked the presence of a small water wheel that had fallen into disrepair long ago.

Haru gave a low whistle. "How did you find a place like this?"

Baron didn't answer, but only prompted her onwards. "We can't set a fire going without the smoke attracting attention, but it's not too cold tonight so I think we'll survive on just blankets."

"You're squatting, aren't you?" Haru translated. "The real owners are away and you don't want anyone to know we're here."

Baron made a face that she couldn't quite read, and fished a key out from between the roots of a tree stump. "Close enough," he said, and he pushed the door open.

As she entered, Haru adjusted her initial assessment. While the exterior had little to indicate it had even been looked at in the last decade, the interior wore the years much more kindly. The kitchen surfaces were dusty, but otherwise clean, crockery had been carefully stacked in their respective cupboards, and the furniture had been lovingly carved once upon a time.

"You can take the bedroom on the next floor up," Baron said. "There'll be fresh blankets in the wardrobe, and a candle and matches in the bedside table drawer. If you need to wash, there's a well round the back that should still be fine."

Haru looked up from where she had been examining the finely-carved furniture. "You really know your way around this place, don't you?"

Muta snorted. "What happened to the real owners, that's what I wanna know. Probably murdered them in their sleep or something."

"If you don't like it, you're welcome to sleep outside," Baron told the cat. "No, really. Please do. Then perhaps I'd get some peace."

Haru left the bickering duo and followed the stairs to the lone room on the floor above. Inside was a single bed pushed up against the window overlooking the cottage's glade, all gently lit by the moon's soft watch. She located the sheets in the wardrobe Baron had mentioned, and pulled them out to start setting the bed when something else – small and white and soft – fell out with the blankets.

It was a handkerchief. Which wouldn't have been notable by itself, except for the fact that in the corner, beautifully monogrammed once upon a time, were the letters _EvG_.

ooOoo

Louise stepped out into the woodland clearing, where now there was only a smothered fire and flattened earth. Auberon stormed across the makeshift campsite, kicking up ash as he passed the dead fire.

"They're gone!"

Louise bit back a smile. "Unaccustomed to failure, are we?"

"This isn't a failure!" Auberon snarled. "You know where she is, don't you?"

"At this moment in time, they could be absolutely anywhere."

Natori, who had been watching the exchange silently until now, suddenly spoke up. "True. But perhaps you know where they're heading to."

Auberon smirked. "Indeed. Mother, where is the Princess going?" The stone in his hand glowed brighter than ever, reflecting the same azure colour of his eyes in the forest's twilight. "Mother, where is she trying to get to?"

"I…" The words 'I don't know' caught in her throat as a single strand of memory, unbidden, rose to mind. Realising she knew exactly where Haru was going, the name magic would not allow anything other than the truth.

"I'm waiting."

"The festival. They're going to see the lantern festival."

ooOoo

Pale moonlight filtered through the window just enough to illuminate the form resting in an aged sofa. Asleep, Haru thought, until Baron's head shifted and those green eyes turned to her.

"You should be sleeping," he said.

Haru approached the sofa and curled her fingers around its padded armrest. The cushions were thin and threadbare, their colours faded to only a fraction of their former glory. She could see where someone had tried to patch the corners where the fabric was falling apart.

"I've slept in the same room my whole life," she answered. "I couldn't relax. And how about you? Shouldn't you be sleeping too?"

He smiled a tired smile. "Ah, don't you know? The wicked never sleep."

Haru eased herself down onto the other side of the sofa, a good foot between the two of them. "You're not wicked," she protested.

"I have a price on my head that would imply otherwise."

"So you stole a few things. No biggie."

Baron huffed in a way that hid a laugh, and for a moment Haru thought he was going to say something heartfelt. Then he smiled and brushed off the comment with, "A crown is no biggie?"

"I mean, it's just a fancy hat. A thing."

"I don't think the King and Queen would agree with that."

"Things can be replaced."

Baron was silent for a long while, silent with the kind of stillness that told Haru that maybe she had hit closer to home than she had been aiming for. When it became clear that he had no intention of carrying on the conversation, she turned her gaze instead to the carefully kept house, hidden away inside a rundown exterior.

"Why did you bring us here?" she asked.

"You wanted to move on, remember? This was simply the safest place I could think of." Baron nodded to the window where the darkened forest lay beyond. "We're not too far from the capital now either; in fact, there's a lake a stone's throw in that direction that borders it."

"Why didn't we press on then?"

"It's late. Too late for any respectable persons to be up and about in the city. No, we're safer to stay here until morning."

Haru was silent. She felt the handkerchief in her pocket, and shifted on the couch so she was a hair's breadth closer to Baron. "You knew about this place, and yet the original plan was still to camp out in the woods. In the dark. Out in the open. Cold. You really didn't want to tell us about this cottage, did you?"

"Well, the fewer people who know about a thief's secret retreat, the better–"

"But it's more than that," Haru said, cutting across Baron's nonchalant tone. "Isn't it?"

Baron met her piercing gaze, and then dropped away. "Yes."

Haru retrieved the handkerchief and set it down on the table before them. Baron's eyes widened, and she didn't miss the way he started to reach out for it before remembering himself.

"Where…?"

"Back of the wardrobe, behind the bedding," she answered softly. She brushed a finger against the embroidered lettering, feeling the faded thread beneath her touch. "Now," she said, "I'm no detective, but "vG" can't be too common a surname initials. Would it stand for von Gikken… Gikkie…"

"Gikkingen," Baron supplied with a smile. "Don't worry; I won't be quizzing you on it later." The smile died away and Haru leant back as he swept up the handkerchief. "But yes. The entirety of it would stand for Edmund von Gikkingen. My father." A small sigh flickered past his lips. "I thought we'd lost the last of these years ago."

There was a silence in which Haru allowed Baron a moment to himself, and then she carefully edged a few inches closer to him. "This is your home, isn't it?"

"Was," he corrected. He stared down at the handkerchief he now passed between his hands. "We lived here after my mother left, but when my father died, my brother wanted to move on. I keep the place tidy for brief rests, but I can't settle. Not when my face can be found on every wanted board in the country."

"Do you want that?" she asked. "To settle?"

For a moment, Baron's attention was ingrained solely on the carefully-embroidered handkerchief, and Haru thought she might get a heartfelt answer. Then he met her gaze with a roguish smile. "What, settle down? Pay taxes and stay in one place and run a house, like some sort of ordinary person? _Never_. What kind of thief do you take me for?"

"A lonely one."

She hadn't really meant to answer. She suspected she was supposed to smile back and laugh and pretend to buy the lie, but somewhere from brain to lips that memo had been lost. All she could do now, her chin rested tiredly on her hands, elbows leaning against her knees, was watch as the assured confidence faded from Baron's shoulders.

"You weren't meant to answer that," he said softly.

"Then you shouldn't have asked it," she replied, equally soft. She sighed and, after a heartbeat's hesitation, leant closer still to him. "You forget: I've lived in the same tower my whole life only knowing two people. I recognise loneliness when I see it."

"Three people, now," Baron amended.

Haru hummed deliberately. "Now, is that counting Hiromi or Tsuge? I'm not sure which one I'd be more scared of upsetting by omitting."

Baron gave a short laugh, and Haru was relieved to see his good humour had returned. "That's not what I meant, and you know it."

"Well, I can hardly count the guards, can I? Not after you knocked out their captain."

"Try again."

"The thugs in the _Sitting Duck_?"

"Now you're just having me on."

Haru laughed, and perhaps it was the way the sleepiness curbed her nerves, or how the laughter broke down the walls, but she found herself leaning against him without ever making a conscious decision to do so.

She felt Baron start a little at the contact, but he didn't move away.

"You should really head back up to bed," he said eventually. "You've got a big day ahead of you tomorrow."

"And?"

"You need your sleep."

Haru curled her legs up on the sofa, and found herself biting back a telltale yawn. "I told you, I couldn't sleep." The yawn triumphed and she could feel the smile forming on Baron's face.

"You sound sleepy to me."

"Then your ears are liars."

"I can carry you back upstairs, if it's the walk that's daunting you–"

"No."

The hand that had been trying to gently prompt her back to her feet faltered. "What?"

She hesitated, surprised at her own admission, but then she softly curled her fingers around Baron's sleeve. "I don't want to be left alone," she whispered. "Please."

For a moment, her companion stilled, and the foolishness of her plea hit home. But for all her foolishness, that niggling doubt still seeded itself in her mind. She needed to know he was here, that he wasn't going anywhere. That her sole companion and guide was not about to abandon her in this wild wide world. For a moment, her heart ached.

Then her companion smiled.

"Then I won't go."


	12. The Crow and the Criminal

The last time Haru had awoken to such screaming was when a pigeon had flown into the tower and almost scared the living daylights out of her mother. That morning, Haru had stumbled downstairs to find her chasing after the confused bird with a broom and screaming threats that involved boiling pots and stew.

Strangely enough, the screams today were also accompanied with threats entailing plucking.

Haru staggered to her feet, noting Baron's absence from the sofa as she fumbled for the cane she'd left by the entrance. Even when she did open the door, it took Haru several more groggy seconds to process the situation before her.

"Don't just stand there – do something!" Baron yelled. He was evidently finding it somewhat difficult to speak, since a crow was hauling his boot across the garden path – with his foot still inside.

"Like what?" Haru demanded.

"Like anything!"

"No, leave him." Muta appeared on the porch beside her, a smirk on his features. "I want to see this play out."

Haru spared a withering glance to the cat and then did what she did best – charged the crow with cane in hand. As she leapt towards them, the boot came loose and Baron was dropped like a bag of potatoes. The crow flew a few feet up from the sudden weight loss and Haru's cane went swinging harmlessly below.

"Leave my guide alone!"

"He has my boot," she could hear Baron mumble from the ground. "I paid good money for these boots."

"Ya mean stole."

"Po- _tay_ -to, po- _tah_ -to."

The crow dropped the boot in question and landed unsteadily on a nearby branch. "That man is a thief and a criminal!" he snapped, pointing his wing for emphasis. "All I'm doing is bringing him to justice." Beady eyes focused on Haru. "Anyone who gets in my way is obstructing that justice."

"And… what happens to people who do that?" she asked.

"They also become outlaws."

"Oh."

"Cheer up, Chicky," Muta called from the cottage door. "It ain't all bad being a fugitive."

"You're not helping!" Regardless, Haru found herself standing between crow and criminal. "Look," she said, "maybe this doesn't have to end in drama. Perhaps instead of obstructing that justice, we can just… delay it a little?"

Baron staggered back to his feet and limped over to Haru. "What do you think you're doing?"

"Saving your ass."

The crow's eyes narrowed. "How little a delay?"

"Two days? Just until he takes me to see the lanterns and back."

"If his guidance to the lantern festival is all you require, any of the guards can offer the same service," the crow said. "And you'll be guaranteed to still have all your belongings at the end of it."

"No, I definitely want his help."

"He's a thief–"

"He got me this far. Please, just let him accompany me home after the festival and then you can, I don't know, chase each other to your hearts' content."

The crow eyed her. "And why should I trust the companion of a known thief?"

"Actually, we're not companions," Baron supplied. "She's blackmailing me into helping."

Haru frowned. "I thought we agreed it was bribery."

"Does it really matter at this point?"

The crow released a cackling caw that broke up whatever Haru had been about to say. "How about I offer a counter deal? You return the stolen crown and I'll consider _not_ calling down the guards on you the moment you enter the capital."

Baron grinned from where he had been fetching his boot. "Well then, prepare for disappointment, my good crow, because I don't have it."

"But, when he gets it back, he'll return it straight to you," Haru said.

"Wait just one moment–" Baron began.

"We promise," she added. "It's just… I've been dreaming about seeing those lights my whole life, so today's pretty much the biggest day ever for me and you taking my guide into custody would sort of ruin it." She paused, and when the crow still didn't seem wholly convinced, she said, "Also, it's kind of my birthday. Just so you know."

"Haru, I don't think–"

The crow cackled, and to the surprise of all, grinned. "Well, why didn't you say so? Then of course I think we can offer a little leeway for you and your… not-companion."

"Thank you!"

"I think he's being sarcastic," Baron muttered to Haru.

"I know," Haru retorted. "I did grow up with Muta, after all. It was worth a shot, though."

"Well, now you've exhausted all possible excuses, I think it's time we discussed your options," the crow said. "Namely, your capture."

"You and whose army?" Baron asked.

"The guards–"

"Which I don't see anywhere about right now. So, tell me, how is one talking bird planning on taking in the Baron, renowned and – if I say so myself – dashing gentleman thief?" He winked Haru's way, who only rolled her eyes.

"Let's find out," the crow snarled. He leapt off the branch and dove down towards Baron, talons outstretched, beak open… for all of one second before he tumbled out of the air.

Haru caught him before he could hit the ground. "Hello."

Baron leant over Haru's shoulder. "I say we make bird pie–" he started, but Haru motioned for him to be quiet. She looked over the creature in her grasp, particularly the weakened wing on its left side.

"You're injured," she said.

"Thank you for telling me. I hadn't noticed. And before you go getting any ideas about pies or stew, you should be aware that I still have my beak and talons and I'm not afraid to use them."

"We're not…" Haru began weakly. "We're not going to cook you."

"You're not?"

"We're not?"

"Can everyone just put down their pitchforks long enough to come to some sort of agreement?" Haru demanded. "Look, if you agree to let Baron take me to the lantern festival without getting him arrested, then I'll heal your wing."

"It'll heal anyway."

"Instantly."

She felt Baron tense by her side. "Haru…"

The crow regarded her with one beady eye. "Instantly? How?"

"I…" How often was she going to do this? Reveal her magic for the sake of one person – one criminal – who she barely knew? Who she barely trusted? "I have magic." The words left her mouth before she could stop them. "Healing magic. And that wing may heal naturally, but it'll take time and there's no guarantee it'll heal perfectly. I can mend it as if it was never hurt."

The crow considered this, and then straightened in Haru's hands. "The name's Toto."

"Haru. You've already met Baron, and watching from the sidelines…" Haru leant back to spot Muta reluctantly rising from the porch. "That's Muta."

"Is the show over already? And it was just beginning to get interesting."

Haru made a face at Muta, and turned back to Toto. "So… do we have a deal? I'll heal your wing, and you'll let Baron take me to the lantern festival and back?"

"Yes."

"You're just going to take the crow at his word?" Baron demanded. "He was trying to attack me!"

"I took you at your word, didn't I?"

"And I've made it abundantly clear what I think about that."

Haru bit back a smile. "And still, here you are," she reminded him. "You haven't broken any promises yet."

"This is not a good habit to get into."

"I'll be the one to decide that."

Toto watched over the proceedings with bemusement. "Why are you two working together again?"

"Blackmail."

"Bribery."

ooOoo

Baron lingered by Haru's shoulder as she looped a strand of her hair around the crow's injured wing. "Haru, are you sure this is a good idea?"

"It's our only idea," she replied, "unless you want to be turned over to the guards immediately."

"It's one crow, not a whole patroon. I say we leave him up a tree and carry on our merry way." He caught her eye and his voice softened. "Look, I'm just thinking about you and your magic here."

"And the fact that Toto plans on arresting you after all this is said and done is not impacting your judgement at all?"

Baron considered this. "It's accounting for astonishingly little of my reasoning," he said, and even he sounded surprised by this.

"Well, whatever your reasoning is, we're not going to abandon him. That's not how I work."

"And you've also spent your entire life in a tower," Baron pointed out. "Things work differently in the real world."

Haru finished sorting out her hair with a decisive tug, and spared him a single withering look. "I guess we'll see whose way works best then, won't we? Now, shush; I have a wing to mend." She smiled down at the crow. "Don't worry, this'll only take a moment."

"Is that with or without the bickering?" Toto asked.

"You shush too."

Ignoring the affronted expressions of both human and crow, Haru leant back into that vein of magic that had flowed through her for her entire life, slipping back into the song that she knew better than she knew her own face. The magic raced along her hair like liquid light, starting at her roots and spiralling down to the tips. Beneath her hands, she felt the bird's wing shift, the bones and muscles realigning and strengthening with every note of her song.

Once completed, she slipped her hair free from Toto, and he hopped back to his feet. He flapped the wing gingerly, and then more firmly when no pain came. "It's… healed."

"I said I would, didn't I?"

Toto raised his eyes from the wing to Haru. "How did you do that?"

"Magic hair."

"What was your name, again?"

Haru tried not to squirm under the crow's scrutiny. "Haru. Just Haru."

"And we're going to be late if we dillydally here for much longer," Baron said, suddenly rising to his feet and pulling Haru up with him. "Festival starts today and we still have a lake to traverse around." He glanced back to Toto. "And I suppose you can come along with us, if you must."

ooOoo

There were times when Baron forgot about Haru's sheltered upbringing – at least, beyond her naïve, if bizarrely effective, outlook on life – but moments like reaching the lake reminded him that he really was dealing with someone who had seen the world through a window her whole life.

She came to an abrupt halt as the water's edge came into view between the trees, and then went running for the shoreline. He caught up with her as she was paddling along the shallows.

Note to self: steal the girl some shoes when back in the city.

"It's so… so large!" Haru exclaimed in delight. "I've never been able to see so far across with no trees in all my life." She inhaled deeply, closing her eyes. "And it's so peaceful. It's like there's nothing else in the world right now."

Baron stepped up to the sandy edge, carefully staying out of the water's reach. "Have you really never seen a lake before?"

"Hello, did you _see_ a lake from my tower?"

"To tell the truth, I didn't get much of a chance for sightseeing. Your cane saw to that." But Baron found himself smiling a little at Haru's delight. "Now, how about we carry on? I think we have a festival to catch."

"Sure." Haru didn't step out of the lake though, preferring to stay within the shallows where the water tickled her ankles.

"Haru…"

"What? You said we needed to follow the lake round, right? So, what difference does it make whether I follow it on the shore or in the water?" She made a face that told Baron she wasn't about to be deterred any time soon, and purposely strode on. Baron had to pick up his pace to keep up.

"You're a little bit mad, you know that?"

"Are you telling me that you never wanted to go paddling in a lake?"

"No, but I was about five at the time."

"Well, I didn't get to do this when I was five," Haru retorted, "so I have a lot of catching up to do." She went on for a little longer in silence, and then added, "Why did you stop?"

"Paddling in lakes? I don't know. I guess I grew out of it."

"You stopped enjoying it?"

"I wouldn't say that."

"Then what's stopping you?"

Baron considered this, then looked down to his feet. "Honestly? I quite like these boots."

"Then take them off, you doofus," Haru laughed, and she reached over and tugged him into the shallows.

"Haru, wait – then at least let me take my boots then– wait, nevermind. Too late." He stood in the water, flexing his toes. "I have wet socks now, I hope you're happy."

"Oh, come on, Baron; live a little."

She was grinning though, and Baron couldn't stop himself returning the smile. He tugged off his boots, stuffed his socks into them, and tied the laces together to make them easier carrying. "Fine. But I'm not going to help you carry your hair later when it's soaking and heavy."

"Of course you will. You're a gentleman."

"Gentleman thief. There's a difference. I was going to cook Toto into a pie, remember?"

"Were you actually though?"

Baron snorted. "No. But only because I'm allergic to lawkeepers."

"Right."

"You sound sceptical."

"No, I definitely believe you. Allergies. _Right_."

Along the shoreline, cat and crow watched the proceedings with a variety of emotions. "They've really got it bad, haven't they?" Toto eventually asked.

"I'm trying not to think about it," Muta replied.

The laughter from the two humans came to a sudden halt, and both animals hurried over to see the cause. As they approached, they saw that the capital city and the long bridge reaching across the lake had finally come into view. Haru started for the entrance, but Baron wasn't quite so quick to respond.

Against all his better judgement, Toto flew over to Baron's shoulder while Muta went chasing after Haru.

"Having second thoughts?" Toto asked.

"No."

"Sure. You are aware that going to the capital, as a renowned thief, is the stupidest thing you could possibly do, right?"

"Are you _trying_ to talk some sense into me?" But Baron didn't sweep Toto off his shoulder, which seemed as good as a confession.

"Consider me professionally intrigued. A criminal such as yourself has not lasted this long by rushing back to the place he thieved two days earlier."

"She has the crown."

"And you should know when to cut your losses."

"It'll set me up for life."

"Which won't do you much good if you're caught."

"It'll be fine."

"Are you honestly telling me that the only way you could think to retrieve a crown worth a king's ransom from a strange young woman in a tower was to agree to escort her into a city with your face on every wanted poster?"

Baron paused. "Aren't you meant to be on the side of the law? Why are you asking this? Do you _want_ me to reconsider this reckless road trip?"

"Like I said: Professional curiosity."

"We came to an agreement. I escort her to the lantern festival, and in exchange she would return the crown to me. Anyway, she's been in that tower all her life; she's probably discovered millions of nooks and crannies in that time. I wouldn't have a hope of finding wherever she's hidden it."

"There are ways to make a person talk."

Baron looked sharply across at the crow, something akin to anger – or hurt? – in his eyes. "You would consider me so heartless?"

"I've heard the stories about you and your brother. About your earlier years when you were known as the Dukes, and they are not kind. So you understand why I'm curious."

"Things change."


	13. The Lantern Festival

Haru's steps slowed as she approached the arched entrance to the city, one hand absent-mindedly pulling her hair up into her arms. Beyond the archway was the bustle of life – people, so many people! More people than she could ever remember, more faces than she could ever recognise, all here. She closed her eyes and revelled in the sound of a hundred people chattering, the faint sound of music drifting from further along the street. As she inhaled, a dozen different scents lingered by her – candies and candles and freshly baked bread – and her head spun with the sensation.

There was the sound of squelching socks, and she turned her head to see Baron stop by her side. She was quietly pleased to see that Toto had forgone his distrust of Baron long enough to use his shoulder as a resting post. That, or to make sure the thief couldn't run off without him. She preferred her first theory.

"Is everything okay?" he asked.

Her mouth flapped a few times as she tried to select just one thing out of the many wonders before her. "It's so big. And busy."

"It _is_ the capital," he reminded her amusedly.

"There's so many people – and the smells – and the sounds – and… and, oh, my legs are shaking." She grinned somewhat lopsidedly. "I think I'm a little nervous."

Helping her with her hair, Baron ushered her over to the stone side of a large fountain centring the square. "We really need to do something with your hair. We can't just leave it trailing or carry it round all the time."

"It's been fine for the last eighteen years," Haru retorted, but she eyed the crowds with their stampede of feet just ready to tread on her hair, and her expression shifted. She pushed it back and dumped the weight of it into Baron's arms. "Fine. Can you plait?"

"You want me to plait your hair?"

"That'll shorten it. If we separate it out into three strands, plait those, and then plait _those_ three together into a larger braid, it could work. I mean, it's either that or you can be my official hair carrier while we're here. Hair bearer? Hair caretaker."

Baron found himself smiling as he started to coax the hair out. "We might have to triple-plait if we want it to be off the floor."

"Then we'll do that." Haru was already weaving a handful of golden hair into an intricate braid. Baron watched for a moment, and then admitted defeat and started a far simpler plait on his side.

"Why didn't you ever do this while you were back at the tower?" he asked.

"Do you have any idea how heavy it is? Anyway, no one's in danger of stomping on my hair when I'm at home. It's easier just to leave it be." She was working at a merry pace, her hands dancing as they already reached down to her waist length. Baron continued at a far slower speed. "Hey, how do you know how to plait anyway?" She twisted her head back to offer him a grin and he nearly lost the plait. "I can't imagine you with long hair."

"How worried would you be if I admitted I'm mostly making this up?"

"A little uncomfortable, if I'm being honest."

"In that case, I know exactly what I'm doing."

"Uh-huh." She watched his movements and then tilted her attention back to her own work. "Well, I've seen worse."

"It looks fine to me."

"Sure. Just don't give up your day job."

"I'm sorry, are you openly endorsing that I go back to thievery?"

She snorted. "Not what I meant."

"I could steal you a proper hairdresser, if you'd like. I'm sure they'd do a much better job at this." He dropped his attention back to the braid, fumbling momentarily as he tried to remember which direction the pattern was going. Once it came back to him, he resumed at the same gentle pace as before, even as Haru finished one strand and went on to the next.

He had carried her hair before, but now, with it woven between his fingers, he could really feel how soft and silky it was. Perhaps not to be unexpected of magic hair, he reminded himself. If he concentrated, he thought he could feel the spark of that enchantment running through it.

He was aware Haru had gone quiet, and he paused in his careful plaiting to see her watching him. "Is everything okay, Haru?"

She blinked, like she suddenly realised what she was doing. Her fingers sped into action, weaving with a deftness that he had no chance of replicating. "It's fine. I just… My mother always warned me against letting anyone even know about my hair, let alone…" Her gaze trailed to the golden locks he held between his hands. "She would think me so foolish if she could see me now."

"Haru, if you would rather I didn't–"

"Keep plaiting, Baron." Her words were brusque, but not unkind. "If I had any issue with you, I wouldn't have asked you to help me with this."

"Of course." He continued, but now his gaze kept flickering back up to Haru. He tried to read her body language, to see if she was being polite and his actions were actually making her uncomfortable. Her shoulders were tense, a slight reddening on her cheeks – embarrassment, unease? – but at some point they had started to lean closer together. He straightened.

"I know you think I'm naïve." Her voice was soft, and for a moment he wasn't even sure he was meant to hear. "And you're probably right. Goodness knows my mother would agree. Even you've warned me against trusting you. But I've spent my whole life looking out a window, dreaming of someday seeing beyond the tower, and now I'm here, I _can't_ … I don't want to believe it's all bad."

"You're right," he murmured, and he felt rather than saw her attention focus on him. "I do think you're naïve. But I also think you're brave, and smart, and… full of light, and that's not just because of your hair," he added, and he was relieved to hear her chuckle. He finished his plait and his hands lingered, a sudden desire to reach out and make contact now itching in his veins. "You're reckless and funny and… I'd never do anything to harm you."

"I know."

His eyebrows raised. "You do?"

"Well, not exactly. But I trust you." She smiled. She tossed her head and flipped several plaits over her ear. "Now keep going. We've got a lot more hair to braid before we're done."

ooOoo

It wasn't, Baron had to admit, an immaculate job. There was a noticeable difference between his plaits and Haru's, one being tight and flawless and the other loose and haphazard, but when Haru rose to her feet and spun, it rippled around her like woven gold. She admired the work in the waters of the fountain and then grinned at Baron. "Not too bad, if I do say so myself." She tilted her head from side to side and took obvious pleasure in the way her hair swayed. "And I do."

"Careful, Chicky; if ya turn too fast, yer gonna knock someone out," Muta warned.

"Oh, do you think I could?"

"Let's not go getting any ideas," Baron said, steering Haru away from the fountain and towards the busy street of shop fronts. "The only one here who's wanted by the guards is me and let's keep it that way."

His grip on her shoulders tightened suddenly, and he hauled them both behind an alley.

Haru tripped and he righted her before she could fall. "Ow, what…?" She trailed off as she saw just who Baron had spotted. "Oh."

Baron watched the guards amble by, his breathing suddenly uneasy and his eyes diluted. He offered a grin that didn't reach his eyes to Haru. "Please hold; your schedule of fun and festivities will resume momentarily," he whispered.

She resisted the urge to elbow him. Of course they would have to keep a low profile in the capital – it was weird; in all her time with Baron, she was beginning to forget his status as a wanted man. She glanced to Toto, to see if he was at all tempted to call out and bring the guards running, but he seemed to be keeping to his earlier promise.

"Okay, the coast looks clear," Baron breathed, and he turned his attention back to Haru and both realised at the same moment how close they were standing. He sprung back, and Haru was relieved to see she wasn't the only one reddening. "So, Miss Haru," he said, in a voice that didn't sound quite as casual as he was probably aiming for, "you've never been out of your tower before, am I correct?"

She gave him a searching look. "No…"

"Then I imagine you have never tasted ice cream."

Her searching look didn't lessen. "No…?"

He grinned. "Then you're in for a treat." His hand curled about hers and, with only the slightest hesitation as if the contact had startled him too, he pulled her out of the alley and towards an open shop front. The temperature was lower there, chilly almost, and the counter that boarded the large window showed a display of some kind of half-frozen food in tubs.

"Ice cream," she repeated, whispering her words to Baron. "It better taste better than it sounds."

"You'll never know if you don't try it," he whispered back. "Now, what flavour?"

Aware that the shopkeeper was watching and waiting for a decision, she offered him a quick grin before dropping her gaze to the various tubs. Many were fruit flavoured, according to their tags, some with toffee or nuts, and a few flavoured with what Haru suspected was alcohol. She pointed to what she hoped was a safe option, a dark cherry tub, and then watched with wide eyes as the shopkeeper scooped it out and settled it into a wafer cone.

She took it rather gingerly and flinched when she felt the cold against her skin.

"Okay, I have the ice cream. Now what do I do with it?"

Baron took his own selection – a lemon flavour, by the looks of things – and stuck a very small wooden spoon into her scoop. Haru tilted her ice cream and the spoon stayed in place. "Now," he said, "you eat it."

She eyed him, and then her ice cream. "I'm only trying this because I trust you," she said, and she peeled the spoon out. It was met with a worrying amount of resistance, but came away with a small lump of ice cream that she bit into.

She startled and almost dropped the cone. "Cold!" she gasped round a full mouth. "Cold! Cold!" She made a face, trying to open her mouth without drooling the ice cream off her lips, and blew warm air between her teeth. Eventually it melted against her tongue and she was left with a sweet berry aftertaste. She looked up to see Baron trying not to laugh.

"You could have warned me."

"In my defence, it is called _ice_ cream." He paid the shopkeeper and prompted her to continue down the street. "Do you like it?"

"Well, I don't… _not_ like it…"

"That's good enough for me." Baron paused as he realised Haru had halted. He turned back to find her staring up at a mosaic mural along the side of the plaza. Little candles were set along it, punctuated by the occasional red lantern, a sad sort of silence buffering it from the rest of the festivities.

"Who are they?" she asked.

"That's the King and Queen," he said. His eyes shifted to the tiny blonde baby depicted in their arms. "And the missing Princess."

"The one your mother…?"

"Yes."

"The candles…?"

"The festival is for the missing Princess. They celebrate today in hopes she will one day return."

"Do you think she will?"

Baron was silent for a long moment. Too long. "Maybe," he said.

Haru stepped up to the mural and met the tiled eyes of the King and Queen. The King was tall, mostly muscle, with dark hair and dark eyes. The Queen was shorter, with brown, reddish locks and golden-brown eyes. Ordinary people, even with their crowns. And then there was the Princess. Tiny. Loved.

Lost.

She stared at the baby and tried to see what could have driven Baron's mother to steal her best friend's child. To abandon her own sons and send two families and a kingdom into despair.

But, of course, she found no answer. The Princess, for all her inheritance, was just a baby.

"Haru…"

She tore her gaze away from the mosaic and back to Baron. He was watching her, something unreadable in his eyes, and then he nodded down to her hands. She followed suit and saw that the ice cream was dripping out of its cone.

"Aw, shoot!" She started to scoop it back into place with her spoon, and allowed Baron to prompt her back into the festivities. After a moment, she glanced back and saw Muta was still sitting in front of the mural. He was unusually quiet, his form smaller than normal and his attitude gone. "Hey, Muta," Haru called. "You coming or not?"

The cat jolted, like he had been in the midst of thought, and quickly followed after them. "Yer not leaving me behind, Chicky."

Haru grinned, and spared one last look at the mural. Something nagged at her. Something important.

She shook her head and upped her pace, looping an arm around Baron's and drawing them closer. "So," she said, "where next, oh guide of mine?"

Baron tilted his head to the clocktower rising in the centre of the square. "Looks like we've still got a bit of time before the festival really kicks in. I have a few ideas."


	14. Brave New World

Books.

More books than Haru had ever seen.

More books than she could ever hope to read in a lifetime – although that wouldn't stop her trying.

Her feet stumbled to a halt beneath the doorway, and Baron had to gently prompt her inside before she could block the entrance.

"Books…" she said numbly.

"It would be a very poor library if it didn't have any," Baron chuckled. He started down the nearest shelves, eyeing the labels across the top. Haru eventually regained use of her limbs and started after him.

Compared to the hustle and bustle of the street outside, the library carried a strange sort of silence with it. There were people, but they murmured, sound absorbing into the books and softening. And, as Baron led her deeper into the building, she saw she had only just scratched the surface of the library's contents.

"I never imagined there would be this many books in the world," she whispered.

Baron looked back to her, and there was something akin to… pity in his eyes? "This is just one library, Haru," he said. "In one city. There are hundreds more books, in people's homes, in the shops, in the palace library… and that's in this city alone. In the kingdom, in the world…" He trailed off and turned abruptly, twisting down a corridor of bookcases until he came to what he was looking for.

He pulled a stupendously large book off its shelf.

"You're meant to read that?" Haru asked, sceptically. "What is that, a book for giants?"

Baron grinned and hauled the tome onto a nearby table. "It's not for reading – not in the usual sense, anyway," he said. "It's for looking." And he pulled the book open to reveal a full-cover spread of…

Of what?

Haru leant in, trying to make sense of the coloured masses and squiggly lines. Cursive writing marked out features, with repeating patterns scattered.

"It's a map, Chicky," Muta supplied. "Shows you how to get places."

Baron glanced down to Muta. "I thought I told you to stay outside."

"And I ain't letting ya out of my sight. I still don't trust ya."

"That makes two of us then," Toto said, landing on Baron's shoulder.

Baron gave both animals a look of despair. "This is a library. Animals aren't allowed inside," he whispered furiously.

"Oh, so _now_ you care about rules?" Muta scoffed.

A hand gently tugged at Baron's sleeve before he could think of a retort, and his attention was brought back to Haru and the atlas. "This isn't a map," she said weakly. "Where's…? Where's home? Where are we? I don't recognise any of this."

Baron skimmed over the page and pointed to a small area surrounded by blue. "Well, that's Corona, our kingdom, and we…" He pointed to a star centring it, "are here, in the capital city."

Haru was silent for a long moment. "And the rest?"

"That's the rest of the world, Chicky."

"Chair."

"Pardon?"

Haru motioned. "I need to sit. Chair."

Baron grabbed a seat from another table over and quickly passed it over to Haru. She collapsed down into it not a moment later.

"Are… you okay?" Baron asked.

For answer, Haru stared at the page before her, hands cradled before her mouth like she wasn't quite sure she'd be able to form words if she tried. Eventually, she slowly pointed to a green patch, not far from Corona. "What's there?"

"That's Cedar Forest. There's meant to be spirits there, so Corona mostly stays out of it."

She pointed to a grey symbol almost lost amongst the green.

"Irontown," Baron supplied. "Practically a fortress, or so I've heard."

"And here?"

"The country of Ingary. Apparently has a lot of magic, including walking castles."

"Here?"

"Kingsbury. Possibly on the brink of war with Ingary." Baron paused, and then – in a flurry of movement before Haru could ask another – grabbed several more heavy tomes off the shelves. He thudded them down onto the desk and opened them up onto more brightly-coloured pages – but this time with recognisable images, not maps. He flipped through and Haru saw picture after picture of worlds she hadn't even imagined. Of giant white wolves, and deer with the face of an almost-human, and tiny stone figures nestled in the crook of trees. Of underground forests built with moss and fungi, glowing the low light. A town swathed in ash and smoke, huddled between lake and sloping forest. Stone houses built into a rising cliff face, rock doves caught in mid-flight.

"These all…" she began tentatively. Her fingers brushed the pages with an almost reverent air, as if they might open gateways into their images. "These all exist?" She looked to Baron with wide eyes. "These are all real?"

He chuckled lightly. "All of these and more."

"It's…" She shook her head and didn't continue.

"I know you never left your tower before now, but… there were books there," Baron said. "Did you never read anything about this?"

"My mother didn't exactly encourage me to learn about the world," Haru said. She suddenly wasn't making eye contact with Baron. "After all, what use is there in learning about a world I'll never get to actually see? I think she thought it would be cruel."

Baron paused, his hands lingering on the next page on Ingarian magic. "Maybe," he concluded softly, "but I guess that makes me lucky." When Haru looked to him, questioningly, he smiled. "I get to be the one to show you the world."

ooOoo

There was a commotion as they left the library, and Haru almost backpedalled into the building on instinct. She would have done too, if Baron hadn't caught her shoulder and steadied her.

"Easy, there," he soothed. "This is just the next stage of the festival."

"What is?"

Baron gave an amused sigh. "The dancing."

And Haru took another look at the hubbub spreading out across the plaza. It looked like chaos to her; all excited babble and off-key notes and fumbling to find places. It was hard to imagine any of it falling into anything resembling dancing.

"This is dancing?" she asked.

"Well, it will be in a bit." Baron threw her a strange look. "Please tell me you know how to dance."

"Of course I do," she replied, a tad indignantly. "Just never like… never with so many people." Never so loud. Never so contagiously _joyful_. The discordant music began to fit together as the musicians finished tuning their instruments, and suddenly the crowds were grabbing hands and forming circles across the plaza.

"Right, right," Baron said. "Never left the tower before now, of course."

She eyed him. "Do _you_ know this dance?"

"I learnt it a long while back, but I haven't had much use for dancing for… well, not recently, let's put it that way. It's not a difficult dance though – there's a single set of dance moves that repeat over and over, getting faster with every round until either the musicians or the dancers give way." He grinned, and then spotted the expression filtering across Haru's face. "What?"

"You don't dance anymore?"

"Thieves don't get invited to parties."

The pity clouding Haru's face shifted to something he belatedly recognised as stubborn determination. "Well you're invited to this party," she said, and grabbed his hand.

"Wait, no – keeping a low profile, remember?" he protested as he was hauled forward. "I can't just – oh, okay–" Suddenly he found himself slotted beside Haru in an opening as the townsfolk split apart for them. He smiled fleetingly at the woman to his left and then leant over to Haru on his right. "If I get arrested while dancing," he whispered, "you legally have to come bail me out."

"That's fine," she whispered back. "I'll just sell off the crown and retire rich."

All around her, the rest of the circle spun and clapped twice. Haru jumped and only just managed the final clap.

Baron grinned as he scooped her hand back into his and prompted them both inwards with the rest of the dancers, arms and hands rising as shoulders bumped and feet threatened to tangle with their neighbours. There was a collective whoop of laughter and the chaotic intimacy was lost as they backpedalled into their original loose circle.

"Maybe you should spend less time plotting how to spend my hard-earned treasure, and more time dancing," Baron teased.

"Hard-earned?" Haru echoed with a laugh. "You didn't _earn_ it."

"Do you think they just leave treasure just lying around?" Baron returned. "Anything valuable is always locked or hidden away, and it takes talent for someone to liberate it." He winked. "You're looking at a professional."

Haru laughed, and anything she was going to say was snatched away as Baron's left neighbour looped his elbow and swung him onto the other side. He glanced back and saw Haru had been similarly claimed and was gamely swinging from elbow to elbow, anti-clockwise like all the other ladies.

He could only spare a grin as they passed on the opposite side of the circle, arms lacing for but a moment before the music dictated they carry on.

Around and around until they were back where they started and, even in the slower verse, it was still no stroll in the park to get back before the music began another round. Quicker again.

Both were out of breath as they returned.

"Okay," Haru wheezed, her face flushed but her eyes bright, "so how are you planning on spending _your_ hard-earned treasure?" She stepped forward, stepped back, but didn't break the eye contact. "Maybe on a refresher dancing lesson?"

"I think I'm good on that front."

This time it was Haru who remembered to spin, and Baron who forgot. Her plaited hair flared out around her before swaying back into place along her back, and she grinned at him as she clapped. "Are you sure about that?"

"I learnt ballroom dancing, not this uncoordinated shuffle."

"You're only calling it that because you keep missing the moves."

"You keep distracting me."

Haru laughed, her head tilting back with unbridled humour, and she took his hand again as they converged on the circle's centre. "Really? _I'm_ distracting? Are you insulting me?"

"Oh, I've seen you wield a cane," he replied. "I wouldn't dare insult you."

"Not within reach, anyway."

"Naturally."

They scooted back and found themselves swept back up in the swinging circle once more, the move less of a dance and more of a gallop to return to their original places before the next round started up.

"You still haven't told me what you intend to do with all your riches," Haru called as they reunited.

"Oh, I don't know." Step forward. Step back. "I'm thinking private island." His hand twitched in hers, as if resisting the temptation to grandly gesture the extravagance of his plan. "Somewhere warm and sunny, where I can retire tanned and unarrested and alone, surrounded by enormous piles of money."

"Really?" Haru spun, so Baron couldn't see her face, but she didn't sound wholly impressed. " _That's_ your big plan?"

"You have any better ideas?"

"I don't know. It's just, it sounds an awful lot like settling down to a quiet life to me," Haru hummed. "Staying in one place and running a house, like some sort of _pleb_. I thought you said that wasn't for you."

"Hang on–"

Anything else he had to say was stolen away as another circuit was mandated.

"For your information–" he sputtered as he passed Haru on the halfway point, "–I have no plans of running a house," he finished as he was reunited. "I plan on living off the land and my vast wealth."

"Sounds great. Send me a postcard when you get there."

"I'll send you a postcard _and_ a coconut. How does that sound?"

Haru faked a gasp. "You'll spend your precious gold on sending me a coconut? I'm _honoured_."

"Of course I would." He winked. "Second-class stamp, naturally. Or maybe I'll just not bother with a stamp at all and you can pay for the postage when it arrives at your end."

She flicked his arm. "I thought you said you were a _gentleman_ thief."

"A _miserly_ gentleman thief," he amended. "Also, that's not an approved dance move."

"Neither is stomping on your foot, so consider me gracious I went with an alternative." She grinned and looped away from him, once again coming to the end of another verse.

Their dancing was automatic now, enough turns of the song practiced for the brain to relegate it to the backburner, but the next round brought a harsh uptick of rhythm. They didn't so much swing from partner to partner as propel themselves forward with every passing dancer. There wasn't even enough time for a quip as they passed the halfway point, sparing no more than conspiring grins.

"Haru–" Baron began.

"Can't talk!" she gasped as she fumbled the one step forward, one step back move. "Concentrating!" She whirled wildly, barely able to catch her balance in time for the clapping. There was a fresh vein of laughter bubbling up now from the plaza; uncontrolled, contagious, and mildly-hysterical as people began to miss steps and catch their neighbours instead. The melody that dictated they converged into the circle's centre rose up, prompting a mad dash into the middle that was a far cry from the original leisurely skipping that had begun the song, and chaos began to break out.

Peals of laughter rang out as someone on the opposite side of the circle tripped and was only saved from the cobbled street by their neighbours pulled them back up. Toes were stepped on. Elbows clacked. Shoulders knocked. And then they were on to the circling. People forwent swinging now, and Haru found herself reaching from stranger's hand to stranger's hand, passing Baron briefly, and then leaping from one unknown dancer to the next again. Round and round, faster and faster, until she was reaching for Baron's hand–

She stumbled and the cobbled plaza reared up before her. And then a wrist snagged hers and she was pulled close into a familiar jacket just as the music collapsed in a triumphant final flourish.

She was breathing fast. So was Baron. She could hear his heart hammering in the sudden silence of the music's absence and her own heart raced alongside it. She raised her gaze to his, and the teasing response floundered on her tongue as she met his eyes.

At this proximity, they shone like emeralds. The sinking spring sunshine caught on them and they were like gems. Like sunlight through leaves. Like–

Applause rose up from the dancers and onlookers alike, and Haru jolted.

Baron did too. He blinked rapidly, as if his thoughts had also been far away, coming back into focus just as the cry of "The boats! To the boats!" rose up from the crowds, and they both sharply broke the close contact.

Haru automatically ran a hand through her hair, the nervous action accompanied by a disorientated scan of the plaza as people began to purposefully file away. She glanced back to Baron with a self-conscious grin. "Now what?" she asked.

"Now we reach the reason you came," he said, and guided her against the current of the crowd.


	15. Light

The lake harbour was uncannily quiet after the hustle and bustle of the city. Haru watched as Baron paid the fisherman and pulled the boat close to the pier's edge, the light rapidly falling and the sunset mirroring off the water's surface. She raised an eyebrow as he offered a hand down from the boat's belly.

"Are you coming?" he asked.

"In there?"

"I didn't hire it out just to admire it," he replied with a smile. "Come on, I promise I won't capsize us."

"I've never been on a boat before."

"Then this will be an experience." He grinned, and then hesitated. "Do you get sea sick?"

"I don't know. I've never been on a boat before," she repeated. But she took the hand and allowed him to guide her down. She knew her grip was tight, her knuckles white as the boat rocked around her, but she couldn't help it. "Are… are you sure this is quite safe?"

Baron laughed. "You attacked Tsuge, outran the city guards, and used a decrepit dam as a playground, and yet this is what you deem unsafe?" He pulled her further into the boat, his hold attentively gentle compared to her iron grip. "I won't let you fall," he promised.

Haru met those emerald-green eyes, and she didn't know what she was going to say, for suddenly her brain had yielded control of her mouth to her heart, and she was very sure she was about to say something heartfelt and foolish–

The boat rocked violently and she was jolted forward as Baron was jolted back and suddenly she had landed on top of him.

Their faces were even closer than they had been during the dance.

"Hello," Haru murmured.

"Hello," he murmured back.

"What happened to not letting me fall?" she whispered.

"A gentleman always falls before the lady. It provides a soft landing."

"My bad!" Muta called. "Geez, maybe yer should spring for a sturdier boat; this one's not cat-proof."

Haru and Baron simultaneously realised the position they were in and scrambled away from one another in a tangle of limbs and feet. Baron gave a self-conscious cough as Haru turned to focus on the cause of their near mishap. "Heya, Muta…"

"Don't you 'heya Muta' me. What is it, Chicky?"

"Do you think you could possibly stay here with Toto? You know… make sure nothing happens?"

"Yer mean make sure he doesn't go squealing to the guards until after you're back in the tower?"

Haru hesitated. "Sure. That."

Muta gave her a look that implied he wasn't nearly as oblivious as Haru was hoping. Then he shrugged. "Fine. Why not? Boats and water ain't my thing anyway."

"Thanks, Muta."

"Jus' don't go doing anything stupid."

"Oh, you know me," Haru chirruped as she dumped Muta back on the pier. "Sensible is my middle name."

"Don't push it."

Haru grinned and settled herself down.

Baron carefully stepped around her to give them a push away from the shoreline, pausing at the expressions of the two land-bound animals. "Hey, Toto, crows eat fish too, right?" he called. He threw a bag over onto the pier, where a couple of freshly-packed fillets spilled out.

Muta pounced on the contents, but Toto tilted his face suspiciously.

"What?" Baron demanded. "I bought them." He turned away and set to rowing. And then, beneath his breath, added, "Most of them." He smirked at the indignant spluttering and didn't look back.

Haru shuffled round in her seat so she was facing Baron, a conspiring gleam in her eyes. "Tell me the truth; did you organise this just so you'd be far, far away from the city guard? Because last I checked, everyone else was going in the opposite direction."

"Ah," Baron said with a wink, "but that's because they don't know the best seat in the house. City. Lake." He frowned. "You get the picture."

"Very smooth. And does the best seat in the house require opera glasses?" Haru asked. "Because I did not bring any along."

"No, the best seat in the house does not require opera glasses," Baron returned. "Oh ye of little faith, be patient. I promise everything will be clear soon."

"Just like you promised I wouldn't fall?" Haru teased. She found herself leaning in, her head cocked to one side and a smile tugging at her lips. "Maybe you just brought us here so you could scope out private islands." She nodded to a tiny islet verging on the far shore that was barely more than a tuft of grass. "I reckon that one's probably going for half price."

He glanced back, and grinned. "I don't know – it looks a little small."

"Oh, I'm not sure about that. Clear the weeds, flatten the grass, and you might have enough room for a deck chair."

"A deck chair?"

"Maybe a little table to put your drinks on too," Haru added. Her eyes widened. "Oh, perhaps you could buy a chair that comes with a folding umbrella above it. Do those exist?"

"Haru, I plan to be obscenely wealthy," Baron said. "I could commission a whole army of deck chairs with their own built-in umbrella, if I wanted to."

"So that island's a maybe?"

He laughed. "I imagine I'll be able to afford an island that's slightly more… more than that. I'm thinking sunshine, beaches, and being far, far away from the kingdom that I just stole their crown from. It's going to be perfect."

Haru was silent for a moment. Then she straightened, the playful expression fading. "Then you must be pretty excited that we're nearly all done here." The words fell flat, no longer the teasing question it might have been five minutes before. "Then you can be on your merry way, and I'll be on… mine…"

She trailed off as Baron set the oars to a halt, resting his arms across his knees and leaning towards her. "I've been thinking… if I am to retire for good on a private island, then it'll have to be perfect," he said, his voice deceptively idle, but the corner of a smile twitching on his lips. "It can't be just any old island, so I'll have to do a bit of searching first. Scope out the options, as it is. And if I really want to get it right, I really should have a second opinion, don't you think?"

Haru felt the beginning of a returning smile ghost her lips. "You think so?"

"I'm thinking Muta, maybe Toto… Do you think the royal guards will be willing to give some constructive criticism? I bet the captain of the guard has a discerning taste in private islands."

A laugh caught in the back of Haru's throat and she felt the smile break through. "Sure. It'll serve as a good distraction while they're arresting you."

"Ah. Well, no plan's perfect. What about Hiromi and Tsuge? Now there's a couple with good taste–"

"Assuming they don't sell you out for taking their share of the crown."

"I'll give them a third of the island."

"A third?"

"Maybe a quarter." Baron wrinkled his nose. "An eighth."

"Each?"

"Oh, goodness no. Between them both." He watched her laugh, a content fondness seeping through his veins and settling into his heart with dangerous surety. He glanced away before he could say something stupid, like inform her that he could listen to her laugh all day or that her smile was brighter than a hundred stars or– "You know, there is one person I'm forgetting. A certain brave, funny, outgoing blonde who would be the perfect island-shopping companion."

"A certain brave, funny, outgoing blonde who knows you promised to give the crown back to the guard in return for not getting arrested," Haru replied, but she closed the distance between them. "And who intends to make sure you keep that promise."

"How about window shopping, then?" Baron asked. "We can make a list." He leant back and gestured grandly to an imaginary title. "Humbert and Haru's Top Ten Islands to Buy When We're Insanely Rich."

"Around the World in 80 Islands," Haru offered.

"Now you're getting it. Treasure Island: Maybe the Real Treasure was the Islands We Found Along The Way."

"Wait, treasure islands aren't real."

He winked. "That's just what they want you to think."

" _No_ ," Haru gasped, scandalised.

"Yes."

"There's no way you've actually been to a treasure island."

"Been, plundered, got the t-shirt."

"And where is all this wondrous treasure?"

Baron faltered. "Somewhere at the bottom of the sea, I think? Look, it's complicated – there were sirens and storms and I think a kraken somewhere in the mix…" He trailed off. "I promise to bring you to at least one treasure island on our island-hopping tour, okay?"

"Really?"

He grinned. "Really. Oh, just you wait – treasure islands aren't even the best of it. There's whole cities that are built up on islands – Irontown, for one – and I know there's another town that's built on a marsh and the entire place runs on canals."

"Is that technically an island?"

"Are you saying you don't want to visit it?"

Haru reconsidered. "Suddenly I no longer care about technical definitions."

"That's what I like to hear. Oh, and I haven't even got to the floating islands of Laputa."

"Floating?"

"In the sky."

Haru wrinkled her nose. "Now I _know_ you're making that up."

"My word is my bond, it's 100% true."

"Not a chance. How would you– how would you get it up into the air?" Haru demanded, laughter teasing at her words with her incredulity. "How would you make it stay? Do they– do they sit on the backs of giant eagles? Do you rig them up to clouds and tow them along?"

"No one knows – it's a mystery," Baron replied. "But wouldn't you love to find out?"

"If it's a mystery, it could take us a while to solve it," Haru said.

"I've got time. How about you?"

She leant forward, and in the twinkling light of the city behind him, her eyes reflected back golden. "Are you asking me to run away with you for a life of adventure and mystery?" she whispered.

"I might," he whispered back. "Depends on your answer. If you say yes, then of course that what I'm asking."

"And if I say no?"

"Then it was a simple misunderstanding and we never speak of this again."

"Ah, sneaky. That way you never get rejected."

"No one would ever reject me. Have you seen my smoulder? It's infallible."

She laughed, her eyes glittering and golden and her smile lighter yet. The distance between them drew shorter still and Baron's mind scattered just as her gaze shifted, her focus moving onto something in the far distance.

She straightened, the moment before forgotten. "What's that?"

ooOoo

Up in the palace, a lonely queen stood atop a balcony. A lit lantern rested on the balcony's edge, and with a bittersweet smile she released it from the ribbons keeping it moored. For a moment, it lingered in her hands, warm and bright and safe, before the heat swept it up and it rose out of her reach and into the empty sky.

ooOoo

With some reluctance, Baron turned. At the high point of the city, centred by the palace, a golden light shimmered. It rose hesitantly, a single star among the suddenly darkened city, before bobbing up into the sky and across the heavens.

Another light joined it, just as beautiful and bright, and now a sea of gold was cascading through the streets and rising up to replace the stars. Baron heard a breath hitch, and he turned back to his companion. The expression across Haru's face was enough to make him forgive the lanterns for their untimely interruption.

"It's even more beautiful than I imagined," she breathed.

She rose to her feet, tentatively at first, but then gaining surety even as the boat rocked beneath her. She grabbed Baron's shoulder for support; serving as a momentary anchor before she propelled herself to the boat's bow and leant out as close as she could get to the luminous dance above, like a ship's figurehead yearning to join the stars.

A blossom of lanterns unfurled from the royal ships moored just offshore and silhouetted Haru in a halo of gold.

She tilted her head back and laughed and Baron suddenly knew he had never seen anything so beautiful.

ooOoo

The world was blazing and beautiful, and staring up into the current of handcrafted starlight, Haru felt something shift. She felt something end – a single dream that had been built into her bones since the first time she looked out her tower window and saw the lanterns she had no name for –curl in on itself, content and concluded. A chapter of her life finished.

She looked back to Baron.

Maybe just in time for a new chapter to start.

Her eyes focused on him first – to the hands that had guided and helped her, to the unscarred arm that she had revealed her magic for, to the eyes that looked at her like she was starlight – and the lantern second.

It was a plain affair, simpler than the others that surrounded them. The kind of thing a down-on-his-luck gentleman thief might buy, not steal, and he cradled it in his hands. The glow was barely more than a candlelight glimmer, nothing compared to the brilliant blaze of her hair, but in that moment it was more beautiful than any magic.

And Baron…

And Baron carried that self-same look for her alone.

Midway in reaching for the lantern, Haru hesitated. Her heart beat out a funny little rhythm and butterflies occupied her stomach, and still she hesitated.

A corner of her mind – a small, but insistent corner – whispered her mother's warning. It whispered of brothers and traps and bargains built of bribery and blackmail and what will be left when the deal is done?

Then test it, her heart returned. If you love something, let it go. If it comes back…

She couldn't remember how the phrase finished.

She reached down into the shadows of her seat. "I have something for you too," she said, and pulled the satchel onto her lap. Her heartbeat had shifted into a whirlwind and the butterflies into a storm. "I know I said I would return it once I was back home, but that was before I knew you and I had to be sure you'd keep your word…"

Rambling. She was rambling.

"…and naturally I was afraid you were going to abandon me at the first chance you got – I mean, we were complete strangers, and you were a thief, and I do have to be careful and all…"

She looked up from the satchel to him, and fumbled.

"…but I guess… what I'm trying to say is… I'm not afraid anymore, you know?" she finished, and she was surprised to feel the truth of the words settle into her heart.

Baron reached out for the satchel, hand curling around the flap, and then–

Lowered it.

Again, something shifted. Somehow she knew she wasn't the only one starting a new chapter.

"I'm starting to," he said, and placed the lantern into her hands. Their hands brushed and then, emboldened by something shared between them, resumed the contact that stayed even after the lantern rose from their united hold.

The butterflies had returned, but they had slowed. Gone was the heady, intoxicating instinct that she had found something worth hanging onto that would slip as easily from her grasp as the lantern if she let it. Instead settled a surety that she had something that would stay. Something she need only ask.

Baron brushed a stray golden curl back from her face, and then his hand lingered. Hesitantly, gently, he cupped her cheek with a hold that a breath could break, and drew her closer.

She leant in to the embrace, filling her view with those emerald-green eyes, so near and so intimate that she saw the exact moment his gaze flickered away and faltered.

ooOoo

Baron's breath caught and the spell that the festival had woven broke.

For on the far shoreline, far from the golden lantern-light, stood his brother.


End file.
